AtDDtA(15): The Ball in Hand

[Dave Monroe]

   "'The Ball in Hand,' recalled Darby--'and say, what are we waiting for?'
   "As the years had gone by, Earth making its automorphic way round
the sun again and yet again, the Candlebrow Conferences themselves had
converged to a form of Eternal Return...." (AtD, Pt. II, p. 409)


The Ball in Hand

Recall p. 405 ...

a saloon down by the river called the Ball in Hand

The Ball in Hand isn't the river, it's the saloon. Still, the name
does have an English ring to it. The Bird in Hand is a common pub name
in Britain.

Another cricket allusion? If so, rather obvious. Surely a
straightforward sexual joke.

Oh yes. As discussed a couple paragraphs down!

Ball in Hand might refer to the "orb," an emblem of sovereignty held
in the monarch's left hand in many state portraits; the orb is a small
globe usually surmounted by a cross. Or a physics allusion, though
anachronistic by some 30 years: the dome of a Van de Graaff generator.
The museum visitor places her hand on it, the docent cranks the
machine, and the victim's hair flies into an aigrette. Or a more
carnal connotation, not anachronistic at all. Or fortunetelling. These
remote connections do make cricket sound pretty good:

A term used in pocket billiards (especially 9-ball) when a player has
scratched (sunk the cue ball) and the player who follows is allowed to
place the cue ball wherever he/she wants.

Given all the other sexual references in AtD, this definitely has a
sexual ring to it. Consider that the Oxford English Dictionary defines
"ball" as "Any rounded protuberant part of the body." It is thought
that "ball" is derived from the Indo-European word bhel, meaning to
blow, swell;  with derivatives referring to various round objects and
to the notion of tumescent masculinity. Derivatives include boulevard,
boulder, phallus, balloon, ballot, and fool.

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

A ball in hand is worth two in the bush?  Hm ...

Also ...

http://www.theballinhand.com/


automorphic
auto = Self, same. Morph = to change. The theory of automorphic
functions concerns a generalization of periodic functions such as the
Earth's revolution.

Eternal Return
A fascinating interpretation of history in which Time is a single
cycle and once it has reached its conclusion begins anew, and each
repetition of the cycle is utterly identical to the first. Perhaps
originating in The New Science by Giambattista Vico, though made most
famous by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who used it as
the basis for his moral philosophy. Cf. Nietzsche, The Will to Power.

Notice that at Candlebrow, the conferences converged to a "form' of
Eternal Return. The almost instantaneous way the conferees can be
"resurrected' and seem never to age, makes this form of the Eternal
Return a lot like Never-Never Land.

A-and perhaps a Pynchon jape at Nietzsche's vision of history?

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_397-428#Page_409

Eternal Return

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Return_%28Eliade%29

Okay, I don't even want to get STARTED on this point here, now, so ...


"the louche and demonstrably criminal"

Main Entry: louche
Pronunciation: \ˈlüsh\
Function: adjective
Etymology: French, literally, cross-eyed, squint-eyed, from Latin
luscus blind in one eye
Date: 1819
: not reputable or decent

http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/louche


Symmes Street (p. 410)

SYMZONIA
A Voyage of Discovery
By Captain Adam Seaborn
1820

Note on the text: Adam Seaborn is probably a pseudonym used by John
Cleves Symmes (although his name appears as John "Cleve" Symmes
throughout the book). In his Introduction to Symzonia, J. O. Bailey
tells us that "the Library of Congress catalogued the book with a
question: 'Seaborn [pseud.?],' but with no reference to Symmes," and
that the catalogue card for the book at the University of North
Carolina "listed the book as by 'Symmes, J. C.,' with no mention of
Seaborn at all." Bailey gets out of the authorship muddle by taking
recourse to "internal evidence," such as the enthusiastic propounding
of Symmes' theory of the hollow earth and the naming of the land
Symzonia.

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA98/silverman/poe/symzonia.html

In 1818 John Cleves Symmes, Jr., a former American soldier in the War
of 1812, sent a pamphlet to all the major institutions of learning in
the United States. In this pamphlet he wrote, "I declare the earth is
hollow, habitable within; containing a number of solid concentric
spheres; one within the other, and that it is open at the pole twelve
or sixteen degrees. I pledge my life in support of this truth, and am
ready to explore the hollow if the world will support and aid me in
the undertaking."

Symmes then traveled around the country, lecturing on his theory. Over
the next decade, with the help of an Ohio millionaire named James
McBride, Symmes lobbied for both government and private-funding for an
expedition that would enter the earth's interior through the openings
at the poles. It was suggested that a profitable trade might be opened
with the inhabitants found within.

In 1820 a book appeared titled Symzonia: A Voyage of Discovery,
written by a "Captain Adam Seaborn". This book purports to describe an
actual journey into the hollow earth. It has long been thought that
the author of this book was really Symmes himself. If so, the book is
a hoax. If the book was not written by Symmes, then it might be a
satire of his ideas. However, the book's tone of absolute seriousness
blunts any satirical purpose it might have had.

In 1823 McBride, through influential friends, managed to submit a
proposal to congress requesting that the U.S. government fund an
expedition led by Symmes to the earth's interior. The proposal was
voted down 56 to 46. However, one of Symmes's followers, Jeremiah
Reynolds, continued to lobby congress and was instrumental in
obtaining funding for the 1838 Wilkes Expedition to the Antarctic.
Reynolds is also known as the author of a short piece titled "Mocha
Dick" which described the legend of a white whale. Herman Melville
later expanded this idea into his masterpiece Moby Dick.

Symmes died in 1829, but his ideas provided the inspiration for Edgar
Allan Poe's novella, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838).

References/Further Reading:
Peck, John Wells. "Symmes' Theory". Ohio Archaeological and Historical
Publications. 1909 (18): 28-42.

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/symzonia.html

And see perhaps as well ...

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0209&msg=70519

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0209&msg=70528


"the River of Time"

"Upon those who step into the same rivers, different and again
different waters flow." --Heraclitus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus#Heraclitus.27s_river

http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/theseus.html


"giant kielbasa sausage"

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

http://www.klements.com/racing_sausages/index2.html

http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/mil/fan_forum/racing_sausages.jsp

http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060727&content_id=1578614&vkey=news_mil&fext=.jsp&c_id=mil

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=153981

http://www2.jsonline.com/multimedia/multiplayer.asp?id=2714

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=sausage+race


"Faro and fantan"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faro_(card_game)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan-Tan