TSI, Notes 3

[Michael Perez]

142.5  "suggestion therapy":  This is generally used in conjunction
with hypnosis (guided or self-administered) used for curbing unwanted
habits like smoking or overeating.  The type of therapeutic subterfuge
hinted at here is more akin to what is commonly called the "placebo
effect," wherein a patient is given medicine with no active ingredient
and is administered to determine the efficacy of the real medicine in a
test group by percentage of effect versus suggestion.  From the
Skeptics Dictionary (at  http://www.skepdic.com/placebo.html ):  "The
placebo effect is the measurable, observable, or felt improvement in
health not attributable to treatment. This effect is believed by many
people to be due to the placebo itself in some mysterious way. A
placebo (Latin for 'I shall please') is a medication or treatment
believed by the administrator of the treatment to be inert or
innocuous. Placebos may be sugar pills or starch pills. Even 'fake'
surgery and 'fake' psychotherapy are considered placebos."

144.19  "_Tom Swift and His Wizard Camera_, by Victor Appleton":  The
fourteenth in a long series of children's book (for boys, mainly)
published from 1910 to 1941.  The series was resucitated three times
since then:  from 1954-1978, 1981-1984 and 1991-1993, including two
with the Hardy Boys.  Victor Appleton was a name used as the author
but, like the Hardy Boys and other series, there were many who actually
wrote the books.  This particular book was written by Howard Garis who
wrote the first 35, succeded by Harriett Stratemeyer Adams who wrote
the remaining five in the first series.   In the book Grover has been
reading, however, the aging Rad has been "supplanted" by a giant, Koku
(or August as Tom has "rechristened him").  In the earlier books, Rad
was treated as Grover describes him and given lines written like those
Twain gave Jim.

144.33  "Aerial Warships, Electric Rifles"  The former is probably from
_Tom Swift in Captivity_ (1912, # 13 in the first series) which was
subtitled "A Daring Escape by Airship," the latter is from _Tom Swift
and His Electric Rifle_ (1911, #10).  Grover's "malevolent toaster"
seems to have been popping the books up in order, perhaps.

146.25  "Alf Landon":  From 
http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/aae/side/landon.html
  "Alfred Mossman Landon, b. West Middlesex, Pa., Sept. 9, 1887, d.
Oct. 12, 1987, was a key figure in the U.S. Republican party in the
1930s and ran unsuccessfully for president in 1936. "Alf" Landon first
entered the national political arena in 1912, campaigning for Theodore
Roosevelt, who was that year the Progressive party candidate for
president. Landon continued to be associated with progressive politics
within the Republican party. In 1932, Landon was elected governor of
Kansas, and two years later he was the only incumbent Republican
governor to be reelected in an otherwise Democratic landslide. This
success made Landon a strong candidate to oppose President Franklin D.
Roosevelt in 1936. Although he won 17,000,000 votes, Landon carried
only two states, Maine and Vermont. Following his defeat Landon retired
from national politics. His daughter Nancy Landon Kassebaum was elected
U.S. senator from Kansas in 1978 and reelected in 1984 and 1990."

151.18  "Crazy Sue Dunham":  
The following notes are from "A Companion's Companion: Illustrated
Additions and Corrections to Steven Weisenburger’s _A Gravity’s Rainbow
Companion_" by Donald F. Larson at 
http://www.english.mankato.msus.edu/larsson/grnotes.html


"V329.26-27 Crazy Sue Dunham
This character is apparently real. Pynchon found out about her from
_The Berkshire Hills_. The description of her in "The Secret
Integration" is a close paraphrase of several paragraphs in the book
(TBH 256).

"V329.28 Snodd’s Mountain
Although Pynchon undoubtedly wants the reference to be to the Snodd
family, the mountain would not be named for the young Grover of "The
Secret Integration," as Weisenburger suggests, since Grover himself
would not be born until the 1950s."



155.21  "Spartacus":  Novel (1951) and film (1960).  The film was
directed by Stanley Kubrick and nearly universally hailed as a classic.
 The story concerns the slave uprising lead, of course by Spartacus,
against the Roman Empire.
  
>From Charles Hollander's article "Pynchon's Politics:  The Presence of
an Absence" (_PN_ 26-27, pp. 42-54:
"'Operation Spartacus' leads us beyond the story to the Howard Fast
novel Spartacus (1951), the basis of the Kirk Douglas movie the kids
have taken as their model. (In Pynchon's fiction, art has the power to
alter life.) Fast is best known for his historical works dealing with
freedom and social justice. He was also a member of the Communist Party
who served a prison term rather than cooperate with the House
Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy period. So
Spartacus leads us to H.U.A.C., and to Howard Fast, another writer run
afoul with politics. Later in the story Tim Santora wants to go
swimming in the pool at "Lovelace's estate," and we are reminded of
Richard Lovelace (1618-1657), the Cavalier poet. An ardent royalist
during the political turbulence of his day, he served with the French
army in the English Civil War. After the war, his properties, or
"estates," were appropriated by the government, and he was imprisoned.
He is best remembered for the lyrics "To Althea, from Prison" and "To
Lucasta, Going to the Wars." Another writer victimized by political
forces.

158.13  "gimcrackery":  A gimcrack is "a showy object of little use or
value."  From  http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

158.14  "portcullised":  A portcullis is "a grating of iron hung over
the gateway of a fortified place and lowered between grooves to prevent
passage." From  http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

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