ATDDTA (6) 182 - 184. 5 Th

[David Casseres]

Beavers of the Brain:  perhaps setting the stage for the Tommyknockers we're
going to hear about pretty soon.

Bulldog:  "I was standin on the corner, when I heard my bulldog bark/He was
barkin at two fellas who were gamblin in the dark"  from "Stagolee," a blues
song about a bad boy.

On 4/12/07, bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> Moving on to some more interesting stuff with about 17 marbled levels,
>
>
> **********
> 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)
>
> **********
>
> 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".
>
>
> **********
>
> 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>
>
>
> **********************
>
> 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
> >
>
>
> ********
>
> 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?
>
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