AtDDtA(15): The Marching Academy Harmonica Band

[Dave Monroe]

   "Other Units of the Chums of Chance meanwhile chose lateral
solutions, sidestepping the crisis by passing into metaphorical
identities, as law-enforcement squads, strolling theatrical companies,
governments-in-exile of imaginary countries they could nonetheless
describe in exhaustive, some would say obsessive, detail, including
entire languages with rules for syntax and usage--or, in the case of
the crew of the Inconvenience, immersed at Candlebrow in the mysteries
of Time, drift into the brief aberration in their history known as the
Marching Academy Harmonica Band." (AtD, Pt. II, p.418ff.)


"law-enforcement squads, strolling theatrical companies,
governments-in-exile of imaginary countries"

Similarities?  Why "metaphorical identities"?

Main Entry: met·a·phor
Pronunciation: 'me-t&-"for also -f&r
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English methaphor, from Middle French or Latin;
Middle French metaphore, from Latin metaphora, from Greek, from
metapherein to transfer, from meta- + pherein to bear -- more at BEAR
1 : a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting
one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a
likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money); broadly :
figurative language -- compare SIMILE
2 : an object, activity, or idea treated as a metaphor : SYMBOL 2
- met·a·phor·ic /"me-t&-'for-ik, -'fär-/ or met·a·phor·i·cal /-i-k&l/ adjective
- met·a·phor·i·cal·ly /-i-k(&-)lE/ adverb

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary/metaphor/


"imaginary countries"

E.g., ...

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

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0103&msg=54264

And, of course ...

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/v/extra/vheissu.html

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/v/extra/eti.html#vheissu

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0104&msg=54537

And see as well ...

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

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

Ryan, John.  George Dunford and Simon Sellars.
    Micronations.  Oakland, CA: 2006.

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

http://www.sleepybrain.net/micronations-an-introduction

http://shop.lonelyplanet.com/Primary/Product/General_Travel/Reference/PRD_PRD_2084/Micronations.jsp;ODLPSID=G1nXJl5QkQZyYT1kwxRMvPRNxV6YKCQWsvGW01VLsYC86pTGJ9TJ!592725968!830759704?ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=1408474395181057&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302025892&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441760979&bmUID=1186948887863


"exhaustive, some would say obsessive, detail"

Jorge Luis Borges, "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius," (1940)

http://interglacial.com/~sburke/pub/Borges_-_Tlon,_Uqbar,_Orbis_Tertius.html


"entire languages"

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

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

http://www.yourdictionary.com/languages/artif.html

Conley, Tim and Stephen Cain.
  Encyclopedia of Fictional and Fantastic Languages
  Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006.

http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/GR3188.aspx


"the Marching Academy Harmonica Band"

In this episode the academy goes by seven permutations of the name:

    * Marching Academy Harmonica Band
    * Harmonica Band Marching Academy
    * Marching Harmonica Band Academy
    * Harmonica Marching Band Academy
    * Harmonica Band Marching Academy
    * Marching Harmonica Band activities
    * Harmonica Marching Band Training Academy

Its identity is not very securely tied down.

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_397-428#Page_418


"waiting at a railway platform," "spiffed-up Special"

Cf. ...

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

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/hogwarts/hogwarts_express.html


"Chinese red and indigo"

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

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

Vermilion, also spelled vermillion, when found naturally-occurring, is
an opaque orangeish red pigment, used since antiquity, originally
derived from the powdered mineral cinnabar. Chemically the pigment is
mercuric sulfide, HgS. Like all mercury compounds it is toxic.

Today, vermilion is most commonly artificially produced by reacting
mercury with molten sulfur. Most naturally produced vermilion comes
from cinnabar mined in China, giving rise to its alternative name of
China red.

[...]

"China red" is another name for the pigment vermilion, which is the
traditional red pigment of Chinese art. Chinese name chops are printed
with a red cinnabar paste, and vermilion (or cinnabar) is the pigment
used in Chinese red lacquer. Cinnabar also has significance in Taoist
culture, and was regarded as the color of life and eternity.

China red has a special significance in hacker culture. The
documentation for Digital Equipment Corporation's VMS version 4 came
in memorable, distinctively-colored orangish-red ring binders, and
"China red" was Digital's official name for this color....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermilion#China_red

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

Cf. ...

"Into the firelight emerged two boys and a girl, carrying picnic
baskets and wearing flight uniforms of indigo mohair brilliantine with
scarlet pinstripes." (AtD, Pt. I, p. 18)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0701&msg=114459

And, again ...

http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/

http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/


"El Capitán"

Sousa march. "El Capitán" was played by a military band on the deck of
Admiral Dewey's battleship as he steamed into the Bay of Manila in
1898, to "liberate" the Philippines from Spain and also, not
coincidentally, achieve access for U.S. capital and goods to East
Asian markets once the Philippines became a colony. Thus the
references to the "intricacies of greed as then being practiced by
global capitalism" a few sentences later on p. 419 is hardly out of
place for TRP, particularly when mixed with comments on how patriotic
bromides and marching tunes go together. The harmonicas and the
comment that improvisation is definitely NOT welcome in marching band
arrangements, of course, provide Pynchon's own inimitable
caustic/satiric touch; cf. the kazoos in GR. On "El Capitán": see
Hess, Carol A. "John Philip Sousa's 'El Capitan': Political
Appropriation and the Spanish-American War." American Music (Spring
1998).

"Whistling Rufus"

A cakewalk song written in 1899.

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_397-428#Page_419

"My Country 'Tis of Thee"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Country,_'Tis_of_Thee

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200000012/default.html

Cf. ...

harmonica, 62-63, 65-66, 68, 256, 384, 562, 586 ("Mouthorgan temple"),
593, 622, 642, 643, 684, 693, 736, 742, 754-57

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/extra/music.html

Glass Armonica

268; musical instrument consisting of a set of graduated and tuned
glass bowls sounded by the friction of wet fingers on the rims. It was
invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1761. His "armonica" consisted of
hemispherical glasses suspended on atreadle-operated spindle,
overlapping so that only their rims were visible. A trough of water
beneath the glasses moistened them as they rotated through it. It
spanned four octaves. Mozart composed Adagio und Rondo K 617 and
Adagio für Harmonika K 356 for the instrument. Beethoven also composed
for it, as well as others;

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/alpha/g.html

Why harmonica?  Cf. kazoo ...

kazoos, 225 (Kazoo Band), 538, 593, 594, 745 ("brotherhood [with] all
the captive and oppressed light bulbs")

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/extra/music.html