VLVL(4)(gg)(1) Marquis de Sod

[Vincent A. Maeder]

"The Marquis de Sod" (VL, Ch. 4, p.46 et seq.) 

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines Marquis
as 1. A nobleman ranking below a duke and above an earl or a count.  2.
Used as a title for such a nobleman. [Middle English marques, from Old
French marchis, marquis, from marche, border country, of Germanic
origin.]

Therefore, this character is a sort of Duke of Sod.  But it seems like
Mr. Pynchon may have been relying on more than just his imagination in
his 1990 book.

http://www.lib.msu.edu/comics/rri/srri/sod.htm lists the following entry
from 1985: Marquis d'Sod Lawn Service. "Now I Got Holes from Cigarette
Butts, a Whole Acre to Vacuum, a Four-Wheel Drive Rug Shampoo Tractor
with a Carpet Deodorizer Spreader"* (Shoe, Nov. 30, 1985)/MacNelly. --
Summary: Cosmo had the 'Marquis d'Sod Lawn Service' install astroturf,
and there's no more weeds, seeds, fertilizing or watering. -- Call no.:
PN6726 f.B55 "astroturf"

This story is held in Michigan State University Libraries Comic Art
Collections http://www.lib.msu.edu/comics/aboutcom.htm which states: 
	"The Comic Art Collection holds over 150,000 items. Most of
these items are comic books, but also included are nearly 1,000 books of
collected newspaper comic strips, and several thousand books and
periodicals about comics. Although some archival material and a few
dozen pieces of original comic book and comic strip art are held, the
focus of the collection is on published work, in an effort to present a
complete picture of what the audience has seen over the years of the
twentieth century. Local students and advanced scholars from around the
world find this collection to be the primary library resource for the
study of U.S. comic book publications.  
	"The most important categories of material in the Comic Art
Collection, based on current completeness and emphasis, are the U.S.
comic books, the international comics collection, the newspaper strip
books, and the historical and critical materials. Smaller
sub-collections include animation-related material, Big Little Books,
books illustrated by comic artists or written by comics professionals,
propaganda comics, tie-ins to comic-related movies, the Eclipse Comics
archive, and clipping and ephemera files."