MDDM Ch. 57 - a Few Thoughts

[John Bailey]

562.11 ‘The peevish wazir’ – ‘wazir’ is also a chesspiece found in ancient 
variants of the game. Kind of like a pawn or a weaker rook, having one 
appear as ‘peevish’ could be of some significance, especially in a colonial 
(British-Indian) context…
http://www.chessvariants.com/d.betza/chessvar/pieces/wazir.html

563.19 ‘There are some catchy Tunes, and an Elephant, promis’d in the first 
Act, which incredibly, at the very end of the Show, is deliver’d. The 
audience sit stunn’d in the vacuous Purity of not having been cheated.’ I 
love this last line, even more than the ensuing ‘someone’s Elephant, 
perhaps, but no one’s Fool.’ I also tend to think that there is something 
else going on with the elephant on stage, being appeased by the 
stocking-foot’d girls who walk along his meridians, though I can’t quite 
figure out what. Any ideas?

565.10 ‘Tho’ by now broad daylight outside, in here ‘tis forever Midnight, - 
Resolutions proper to the hour being made and kept all ‘round them.’ (here 
being the headquarters of the Sons of Liberty). The chapter opens in a 
theatre (a black hole in one sense) in which is being played out story of 
another, more sinister Black Hole, and moves to a third, a den of politics. 
The three are hothouses in extreme form, the last containing a Blackie and a 
Volcanoe. Hot, dark rooms rife with tension. It was Dixon who visited the 
bordello back at the Cape, a similar situation…and I think it’s Dixon who 
most often finds himself in the hothouse, while Mason is left in the cold, 
windswept streets.



>From: jbor <jbor at bigpond.com>
>To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: MDDM Ch. 57
>Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 08:23:59 +1100
>
>562.11 *The Peevish Wazir* (cf. *The Ghastly Fop* - by the way, where was
>the Fop in Eliza Fields' Tale?)
>
>564.3 a rush of Polonaises, Sacques, and Petticoats
>
>http://www.ghostforge.com/gowns_polonaise.htm
>
>http://www.pastpatterns.com/808.html
>
>564.5 out the Greenwich Road to Brannan's  ?
>
>564.7 since Eyre Coote won the Battle of Wandiwash
>
>http://www.mazro.freeserve.co.uk/eyre1.jpg
>
>http://www.mazro.freeserve.co.uk/eyre.htm
>
>564.9 Montagne's Tavern, upon Broad-Way
>
>mentioned in Vol. 5 of The Papers of George Washington (p. 303)
>
>http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/indexes/revolution/mlist.html
>
>The Sons of Liberty, a working-class revolutionary crew, were more like a
>thorn than a threat to the British. But after destroying buildings and
>carriages, a series of their pranks escalated into a bloody clash in 1770
>that marked the first time American blood was shed in the independence
>struggle. They put up so-called Liberty Poles ‹ metal shafts holding 
>banners
>that read "Liberty" ‹ all around Lower Manhattan, including at their
>headquarters, Montagne's Tavern on Broadway between Warren and Murray 
>inside
>ground zero. When the British destroyed that pole a riot ensued known as 
>the
>Battle of Golden Hill.
>
>http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0152/yang.php
>
>565.35 Cap'n Kennedy ... H.M.S. *Coventry*  ?
>
>566.25 Pygephanous  ass-showing (as mentioned, Fender-Belly Bodine was
>chucking brown-eyes at the Brits)
>
>567.16 *La Fougueuse*  fougue (nf) ardour, spirit
>
>568.17 Asaph  Asaph is credited as the writer of Psalms 50 and 73-83, of
>which Psalm 73, dealing with a question similar to that addressed in the
>Book of Job, is perhaps the best known:
>
>http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Psalm+73
>
>best
>
>




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