AtDDtA(15): Sophomoric Slogs through Endless Quagmires of the Metaphysical

[Dave Monroe]

   "'All due respect to the Professor,' protested Lindsay Noseworth at
the nightly Unit meeting, 'but is this what we have to look forward to
around here, these sophomoric slogs through endless quagmires of the
metaphysical? Frankly, I don't know how much of that I can tolerate.'"
(AtD, Pt. II, p. 407)


"is this what we have to look forward to around here ...?"

Lindsay Noseworth = impatient Pynchon reader?  The Professor = Pynchon?

Main Entry: slog
Function: noun
1 a : hard persistent work <the endless enervating slog of war --
Michael Gorra> b : a prolonged arduous task or effort <reform will be
a hard political slog -- M. S. Forbes>
2 : a hard dogged march or journey

Main Entry: quag·mire
Pronunciation: 'kwag-"mI(-&)r, 'kwäg-
Function: noun
1 : soft miry land that shakes or yields under the foot
2 : a difficult, precarious, or entrapping position : PREDICAMENT

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/


   "Lotta nice college 'nooky' around, though,' commented Darby,
leeringly." (ibid.)

Darby Suckling = typical Pynchon reader?

Main Entry: nooky
Variant(s): or nook·ie /'nu-kE/
Function: noun
Etymology: perhaps from nook + -y
1 often vulgar : the female partner in sexual intercourse
2 often vulgar : SEXUAL INTERCOURSE

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/nookie


   "'An ignorance likely to continue,' prophesied Miles Blundell,
'until the year 1925 or thereabouts.'" (ibid.)

Lindsay's unfamiliarity with the term "nooky," here used to refer to
attractive women and not to a sex act, its most common present day
usage, will likely continue until it becomes an accepted part of the
English language, which occurred, according to the OED, with its first
substantiative written usage in 1928. The OED, by the way, prefers the
spelling nookie.

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_397-428#Page_407

1925

January 3 - Benito Mussolini (Il Duce) announces he is taking
dictatorial powers over Italy.

April 10 - F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby

June 13 - Charles Francis Jenkins achieves the first synchronized
transmission of pictures and sound, using 48 lines, and a mechanical
system. A 10-minute film of a miniature windmill in motion is sent
across 5 miles from Anacostia to Washington, DC. The images were
viewed by representatives of the National Bureau of Standards, the
U.S. Navy, the Commerce Department, and others. Jenkins called this
"the first public demonstration of radiovision".

July 18 - Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1925