"Low-lands," part 2a: Notes, pg 55-66

[The Great Quail]

Some notes on pages 55-66. (Page numbers are from my 1984 Little, Brown and
Company paperback edition.)

Pg 55: Is the name "Dennis Flange" significant? Definition:
"FLANGE: A protruding rim, edge, rib, or collar, as on a wheel or a pipe
shaft, used to strengthen an object, hold it in place, or attach it to
another object. ETYMOLOGY: Possibly variant of flanch, device at the side of
an escutcheon, perhaps from French flanche, feminine of flanc, side. See
flank."

Pg 55: "sfacim." From About.com: "sfa-CHEEM; Neapolitan slang for semen and
equivalent to English slang such as spunk or gism. However, it's also widely
used as a term of endearment, as in 'Hey, sfacim. Come over here and give
your grandmother a kiss before I break your face.'"
http://italian.about.com/library/weekly/aa092502a.htm

Pg 55: "Wasp and Winsome, Attorneys at Law" is the name of Flange's
employer. Note the use of "Winsome," which will recur in "V." It seems
unrelated here; perhaps Pynchon just likes the name?

Pg 56: "You are a damned ASPCA!" The "American Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals."

Pg 56: Vivaldi's Sixth Concerto for Violin, "Il Piacere." I am not very
familiar with Vivaldi, and I don't know this piece, or even what "Il
Piacere" means. However, this scene certainly bears similarity to scenes in
"V.", where the Whole Sick Crew get drunk and listens to Schoenberg albums.
Of course, Schoenberg is the complete opposite of Vivaldi -- perhaps
Pynchon's musical palette became more sophisticated?

Pg 57: Flange's song:

A ROOM WITH A VIEW
By Noel Coward

A room with a view and you
And no one to worry us,
No one to hurry us through this dream we've found
We'll gaze at the sky and try
To guess what it's all about,
Then we we will figure out why the world is round
We'll be as happy and contented as birds upon a tree,
High above the mountains and sea
We'll build and we'll coo -oo-oo-
And sorrow will never come,
Oh, will it ever come true, a room room with a view
We'll build and we'll coo -oo-oo-
And sorrow will never come,
Oh, will it ever come true, a room room with a view
Oo-oo, a room with a view

Pg 57: Odd name, "Geronimo Diaz." I assume Pynchon selected the first name
on the basis of it's more colloquial connotations ("Geronimo!" is often
yelled before doing something reckless) than to make any reference to the
Native American!

Pg 57: "caught red-handed at Molemanship" -- is this a real phrase, or did
he just make it up?

Pg 58: Ebbinghaus:
http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/ebbinghaus.html
http://www.okbu.edu/it/courses/psy354/4ebbinghaus.htm

Pg 59: "Chinga tu madre" -- "Fuck your mother."

Pg 60: OOD -- Officer of the Deck.  From Bluejacket.com: "The officer in
charge of the ship and on deck as the Captain's representative."

Pg 60: Midwatch -- Midnight to 4 am.

Pg 60: Pig Bodine, Pynchon's stock "rough sailor" character, makes his first
appearance. He will return in "V.," "Gravity's Rainbow," and "Mason &
Dixon." In the Introduction to "Slow Learner," Pynchon claims he has a real
life counterpart, and was inspired by a legendary drinking buddy of his
shipmate.

Pg 61: "Red-dog game" -- From winner.com: "Red Dog poker is played using a
52-card deck on a blackjack-sized table with two betting options: Raise and
Not Raise. Three cards are played at each hand, and the suits of the cards
are irrelevant."

Pg 62: The honeymoon story -- Pynchon notes that he heard this story himself
back in the Navy, and was "heavily amused" that anyone "would behave that
way." The victim was his shipmate, and the perpetrator the "real life" Pig
Bodine. 

Pg 62: NOB Officer's Club -- I have no idea. Anyone?

Pg 63: Bolingbroke -- Perhaps named after Henry St. John Bolingbroke, an
English Deist philosopher, 1678-1751?
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/b/bolingbr.htm

Pg 63: The sea-song is called "The Golden Vanity."

Here's a version recorded in the Oxford Book of Ballads, 1910:

A ship I have got in the North Country
And she goes by the name of the 'Golden Vanity,'
O I fear she¹ll be taken by a Spanish Ga-la-lee,
As she sails by the Low-lands low.

To the Captain then upspake the little Cabin-boy,
He said, 'What is my fee, if the galley I destroy?
The Spanish Ga-la-lee, if no more it shall anoy,
As you sail by the Low-lands low.'
 
'Of silver and of gold I will give to you a'store;
And my pretty little daughter that dwelleth on the shore,
Of treasure and of fee as well, I'll give to thee galore,
As we sail by the Low-lands low.'
 
Then they row'd him up tight in a black bull's skin,
And he held all in his hand an augur sharp and thin,
And he swam until he came to the Spanish Gal-a-lin,
As she lay by the Low-lands low.

He bored with his augur, he bored once and twice,
And some were playing cards, and some were playing dice,
When the water flowed in it dazzled their eyes,
And she sank by the Low-lands low.

So the Cabin-boy did swim all to the larboard side,
Saying 'Captain! take me in, I am drifting with the tide!'
'I will shoot you! I will kill you!' the cruel Captain cried,
'You may sink by the Low-lands low.'
 
Then the Cabin-boy did swim all to the starboard side,
Saying, 'Messmates, take me in, I am drifting with the tide!'
Then they laid him on the deck, and he closed his eyes and died,
As they sailed by the Low-lands low.
 
They sew'd his body tight in an old cow¹s hide,
And they cast the gallant cabin-boy out over the ship side,
And left him without more ado to drift with the tide,
And to sink by the Low-lands low.

Alternate versions may be found here:
http://ingeb.org/songs/otherewa.html
http://www.sarcon.demon.co.uk/lyrics/r0865.txt

*** I will post notes on 66-77 within a day or two!

--Quail