ATDDTA (6) 182 - 184. 5 Th

[bekah]

Moving on to some more interesting stuff with about 17 marbled levels,


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182: 12   "Nate...kept wasting Agency money rattling off one telegram 
after another."

The telegram is a less esoteric method of communication than oysters 
or other methods in AtD but Nate is a less esoteric animal.

The  telegram cost an average of 30 cents per message in 1900 and 
$9.95 for 250 words today.  Thirty cents in 1900 is about $7.01 
today.    $9.95 today would be about .43 in 1900.   It's gone up a 
bit even accounting for inflation and of course assuming the messages 
were of approximately equal length.

(and now I can't find where I found that or what I started from)

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182:19  "... handling explosives most of the day, must have had his 
gloves off (though some were never to buy that story) P.E.T.N. as 
best he could recall - well, maybe something a little more 
experimental ..."

**    "something a little more experimental"
Like L.S.D.  (Lysergic acid diethylamide,  - which will blow your 
mind),  a crystaline compound 
?<http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD>

**  P.E.T.N.
The explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate. Ingredient of Semtex, 
discovered 1891.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PETN>


**********
182: 22   "... for he'd been visiting widely respected mad scientist 
Dr. Oyswharf, a possible unwitting supply source for Kieselguhr 
Kid-related bomb outages, ..."

Owsley Stanley of San Francisco LSD fame  < 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owsley_Stanley > 
It was known as Owsley acid. 

Also: "Oysvarf" in Yiddish means, literally, vomitus; An "oysvarf" 
translates roughly as "a little puke".


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182:24  "...recently rumored to be working on different mixtures of 
nitro compounds and polymethylenes."
Nitro compounds include TNT, nitroglycerine and many other 
explosives.  Polymethylenes are probably polymethylene waxes used as 
stabilizers or desensitizers.
<http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_171-198#Page_182>
**********

182:28     "The next thing he knew he was experiencing the hotel 
dining room  in a range of colors. "
(range of colors)
**********

182:30     "The wallpaper in particular presented not a repeating 
pattern at all"

no doubt -  is it paisley? 
<http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/5173486HAyicknbRK>


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183:1      Lew sees  "realms of crystallography"  when he looks 
carefully at his steak..."

I'm sure - LSD is,  and creates its own,  crystallography.
  <http://www.drugs-forum.co.uk/LSD.html>

This is an incredibly funny paragraph and I think I'll type it out:

"... each section he made with his knife in facte revealing new 
vistas, among the intricately dispoed axes and polyhedra, into the 
hivelike activities of a race of very small though perfectly visible 
inhabitants who as they seethede and busteld about , to all 
appearances unaware of his scrutiny, sang miniature though 
harmonically complex little choruses in tiny , speeded-up voices 
whose every word chimed out with ever-more-polycrystalline 
luminosities of meaning - ..."


*******

183: 7  "Yes, we're Beavers of the Brain..."

This little ditty is sung by   "a race of very small but perfectly 
visible inhabitants"  apparently residing in Lew Basnight's steak.

According to Pynchon Wiki the song is  reminiscent of"We Represent 
the Lollipop Guild"  sung by three tough-looking Munchkin boys in The 
Wizard of Oz (1939).   "Beavers of the Brain" also brings to mind the 
phrase "Beaver on the brain" (describing a horny male or, perhaps, 
lesbian) which even adorns t-shirts (see below, right). 
<http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_171-198#Page_183>

*******
183: 12  "Keep that Bulldog in your pocket..."
    **   Bulldog"  a small, "snubbie" revolver, with a very high 
power-to-weight ratio, perfect for carrying in the pocket as a 
concealed weapon.       photo 
<http://www.antiquefirearms.com/images/hgfor/bulldog1.jpg>

(but I suspect that the Bulldog may be related to the Beavers on line 7.

*******
183: 25  "Lew came to in the town pokey..."

He returned to consciousness in jail.


*******
183:28  "Lew was back out at the Doctor's lab, looking you'd say a 
little sheepish. "About that - I forget its name - "
and he gets a little supply of what he's after with info and directions.

*******

183: 31    "no reason we shouldn't call it 'Cyclomite.'"

Cyclopropane is a bit more than Lew can remember easily. 

*******

183: 35  plasticerator
"Plasti-, moldable (in this case chewable); cera- related to Latin 
cera = wax, cerumen = earwax; -ator, an agent to modify a product. 
The word "plasticerator" does not seem to have caught on. It would 
not be a failed synonym for "plasticizer," an agent to make rigid 
plastics pliable."
<http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_171-198#Page_183>

184:3	"There's a strange chemical relationship between nitro 
explosives and the human heart. "

'The connection between explosives and psychedelics is apparently not 
based in chemistry but it has appeared elsewhere in popular culture. 
The 1967 James Bond spoof Casino Royale has a scene where pillowcases 
are inflated with a psychedelic gas, a fuse is attached, and a 
powerful explosion is the result.'
<http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_171-198#Page_182>


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184:5	"From then on, whenever a dynamite blast went off, even far 
away out of earshot, something concurrent was triggered somewhere in 
Lew's consciousness ... after a while even if one was only about to 
go off. Anywhere.	Soon he was pursuing Cyclomite habit, you'd 
have to say energetically. "


Is this not similar to Slothrop's awareness of a rocket being launched?