TSI, Notes 2

[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.
  
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

160.22  "King Yrjö":  Charles Hollander has written on a possible
origin for this king in a section of his article "Pynchon's Politics: 
The Presence of an Absence" (_PN_ 26-27, pp. 42-54) dedicated to "TSI":

  "Pynchon's King Yrjö resembles King Carol II of Rumania. According to
the New Columbia Encyclopedia:
  "'Carol II, 1893-1953, king of Rumania, son of King Ferdinand and
Queen Marie. While crown prince, he contracted a morganatic marriage
with Zizi Labrino but divorced her to marry (1921) Princess Helen of
Greece. He soon formed a liaison with Magda Lupescu, with whom he lived
in Paris after being forced (1925) to renounce his right of succession.
On the death of King Ferdinand (1927), Carol's son Michael became king,
but Carol, having divorced Queen Helen in 1928, returned to Rumania in
1930, supplanted his son, and had himself proclaimed king "de iure"
since 1927. A turbulent period began. In 1938, Carol formed a royal
dictatorship. A contest between the king and the fascist Iron Guard
ensued, with assassinations and massacres on both sides. Forced to call
on Ion Antonesque to form a government (1940), Carol was deposed and
fled abroad with Lupescu, whom he finally married in Brazil in 1947.'
  "More to the point, in 1921, as Hoyt tells us, when many European
nations needed capital to get their economies moving in the aftermath
of the First World War, the House of Morgan financed the Rumanian
government through Morgan Harjes of Paris. The 1920s in Rumanian
industrial history were characterized by 'regulated exploitation of
Rumania's vast natural resources, primarily crude oil, by
Anglo-American and French interests' (Stephen A. Fischer-Galati,
Twentieth Century Rumania [1970]). The prize in Rumania was the Ploesti
oil fields, and we should remember that, during the 1920s, the French
Rothschilds 'were, for a number of years, an principal competitor of
the Rockefeller trust.' (Frederic Morton, The Rothschilds: A Family
Portrait ([1962]). So here we are again: competing dynasties. King Yrjö
leads us to King Carol II of Rumania, leads to the Ploesti oil fields,
leads to the competition between the Morgan-Rothschilds and the
Rockefellers.  . . .
  "King Yrjö's name resolves ('Yr,' shorthand notation for 'your,' and
'jö' [with 'ö' pronounced as the French 'u,' as in 'menu'], 'ju' or
'Jew') into King 'Yourjew.' King Yourjew leads to Magda Lupescu,
through King Carol II, whose Jew she was. King Yrjö's name compacts
into two syllables the whole of twentieth-century Rumanian politics,
finance, industrial development, and civil war; summons Carol and
Magda's love affair; brings 'Mortality and Mercy in Vienna' into focus
with 'The Secret Integration'; and summons J. P. Morgan, King Carol's
financier."


160.22  "morganatic":  From  http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary :
  Main Entry: mor·ga·nat·ic 
  Pronunciation: "mor-g&-'na-tik
  Function: adjective
  Etymology: New Latin matrimonium ad morganaticam, literally, marriage
with morning gift
  Date: circa 1741
: of, relating to, or being a marriage between a member of a royal or
noble family and a person of inferior rank in which the rank of the
inferior partner remains unchanged and the children of the marriage do
not succeed to the titles, fiefs, or entailed property of the parent of
higher rank

162.7   "Wonderful World of Color":  also the name of a weekly hour
long show from Disneybeginning in 1961, hosted by Walt himself until
his death in 1966, and ran under that title until 1969.  It was among
the first TV shows broadcast in color.  There was a show from Disney
under some name or another on varying networks on US television from
1954 until 1990. 

162.21, 22, 24  "Jay Gould" "Jubilee Jim Fisk" "James G. Blaine":  From
the Hollander article in _PN_ 26-27 again:

"As the kids set out toward King Yrjö's estate, Pynchon mentions Jay
Gould and Jim Fisk, robber barons of the Gilded Age. They are
remembered for their attempted takeover of the Albany and Susquehanna
Railroad in 1869. Their grab was thwarted by a young man equal to them
in cunning and resolve, the thirty-two-year-old J. P. Morgan. By
mentioning the vanquished Gould and Fisk, Pynchon enthymematically
summons their victor, young J. P. Morgan. Pynchon also mentions James
G. Blaine, a politician of the period, Secretary of State under
President Garfield (who was assassinated in 1881), and a presidential
candidate in 1884. Morgan, a traditional Republican, startled many by
backing the Democrat in that election, Grover Cleveland. So by
mentioning James G. Blaine, Pynchon evokes the election of 1884 (which
may also explain why he chose 'Grover' for the name of his boy genius),
and evokes J. P. Morgan, though again without ever naming him."

165.9  "Moxie":  The following is from our _GR_ reading a couple of
years ago from Terrance, courtesy of the W.A.S.T.E. archives:

  Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 08:32:01 -0400 
  From: "Terrance F. Flaherty" <Lycidas@[omitted]> 
  To: "pynchon-l@[omitted]" <pynchon-l@[omitted]> 
  Subject: RE:GRGR(12)NOTES (4) 

  Mass marketing is not new to the '90s. Long before Coca Cola and
Pepsi dominated the world market--114 years ago, in fact--Moxie, a soft
drink whose popularity rivaled even our beloved colas of today, was
born. Moxie-mania infested the whole country.  Moxieland became a major
Boston tourist attraction. To "have a lot of Moxie" came to mean "to be
spunky."
  Legend had it that after the Civil War, Lieutenant Moxie went down to
the unexplored jungles of SouthAmerica. There, he discovered a starchy
plant known to locals to have great powers, which tasted like
asparagus. Despite the fact that there was no such starchy plant, and
never a Mr. Moxie, the story became urban legend. The real story is
that in 1884, Dr. Augustin Thompson of Union, Maine, founded the first
Moxie plant. He said that whoever drank Moxie would be overcome by a
"durable, vigorous feeling." Word soon began to spread regarding a
strange new medicine that was guaranteed to cure almost any ailment,
including loss of manhood, paralysis, and softening of the brain.
  By the early 20th century, the "Nerve Food" was carbonated and
merchandised so brilliantly that "Moxie" not only became a household
word, but also became a precedent for successful marketing scams for
years to come.
  Moxie became synonymous with good times. The Moxie logo was slapped
on every kid's toy, piano roll, recording, and piece of silverware.
There was Moxie Candy, Moxie ice cream, Moxie collectibles, and in the
late '20s, Moxieland was built in Boston.  Moxieland became an
overnight success, and it was visited by celebrity spokespersons like
Ted Williams, George M. Cohan and Ed Wynn. After World War II, Coca
Cola erupted from the fountains of America's soda shops. Moxieland
closed, and the company settled into New England obscurity. Today,
Moxie is made by only a few bottlers and can be found only in local
supermarkets. In "The Secret Integration" the kids have a case of
Moxie, well actually they used one bottle to christen their boat and
they drank one bottle to celebrate a secret integration, so they have a
case shy two.

186.24  ". . . integration" "The opposite of differentiation":  A
mathematical explanation of these concepts is found at
http://www.cop.ufl.edu/safezone/pat/pha5127/introd/diff-int.htm
It's another instance wherre "you can't fight the curve," I suppose.

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