AtDDtA(15): You are Directed to Set Course Immediately

Fri Aug 17 10:52:37 CDT 2007

   "Needless to say, differences of opinion within the little band on
how best to proceed were sharp, as was some of the language in their
steering-committee meetings.  The politics were not simplified by the
unannounced reappearance of Harmonica Academy Marching Band squealer
Alonzo Meatman, just strolling in one day whistling 'After the Ball,'
in cakewalk rhythm as if among them no history had ever transpired.
   "He had brought with him, carefully and multiply sealed, a copy of
the enigmatic map they had once journeyed to Venice in search of
[...]." (AtD, Pt. II, pp. 424-5)

"differences ... were sharp, as was some of the language ..."

Typical(ly) Pynchonian trick of ringing off (the) various meanings of
a single word, cf. "venery" @ V., p. 412 ...

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0106&msg=56887

Now if I could only find my post from way back when showing where/how
he did that across an entire paragraph in V. ...

"unannounced reappearance"

Cf. the "unnanounced punishment" Alonzo Metaman DIDN'T have to suffer
as a "squealer" (p. 420) ...

"After the Ball"
Music and Lyrics by Charles K. Harris

This number was interpolated into the score of the hit musical A Trip
to Chinatown (1892) during its record-setting Broadway run. It was
introduced by J. Aldrich Libbey. When Kern and Hammerstein wanted to
add period flavor to Show Boat (1927), they used "After the Ball" in
the Trocadero scene -- where it was performed by Norma Terris.

http://www.musicals101.com/lybowery.htm

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=After_the_Ball

The Inconvenience isn't QUITE a showboat, and it's not QUITE next
going to Chinatown, and Candlebrow U. wasn't QUITE a ball, nor will
things quite be a cakewalk for the Chums from here on out, but ...

"weighty extremity"

Again, why italicized?  Help!

"a deep reverberant voice"

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0706937/

http://www.palantir.net/2001/sounds.html

http://www.halproject.com/hal/index.htm

"authorized agent Alonzo R. Meatman"

Of both the Trespassers AND the Chums of Chance, then?

"the Sficiuno Itinerary"

Page 248:

"... the fabled Sfinciuno Intinerary, a map or chart of post-Polo
routes into Asia, believed by many to lead to the hidden city of
Shambhala itself."
"Try to put yourself back in the place of Domenico Sfinciuno or one of
his caravan."

Page 249:

"The Sfinciuno Interary," explained the Professor, 'conflated from its
original fourteenth- and fifteenth-century sources, was encrypted as
one of these paramorphic distortions, meant to be redeemed from the
invisible with the aid of one particular configuration of lenses and
mirrors...'"

Sfinciuni (also spelled Sfincioni) is the Sicilian member of the
Italian flatbread family. All around Sicily sfinciuni takes many local
disguises. It can be made with or without cheese, with tomato sauce or
'Strattu, the fantastic sun-dried Sicilian tomato concentrate, with or
without bread crumbs... the list could go on forever. In its probably
original version, from the nuns of the San Vito monastery, it is even
filled with sausage meat. The name of this dish, sfinciuni, probably
comes, as many Sicilian terms do, from the Arab. The original Arab
isfang, meaning fried sweet, became the Sicilian sfingia which took up
the meaning of something soft and spongy.

The Sfinci also sometimes being referred to as an Italian Donut, the
name may be meant to signify the numbers 1 and 0, though, this is made
less likely by the fact that Sfinci don't typically have holes (though
they are on the round side).

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sfinciuno_Itinerary

Cf. as well The Ipcress File, The Quiller Memorandum, The Eiger Sanction ...

"Bukhara in Inner Asia"

Khanate of Bukhara XVI-1920

Name "Khanate of Bukhara "is used as a matter of convinience in
European suorces:.In indigenous works the khanate was known either by
the name of the ruling dynasty,by the name of its main region,
Mawarannahr( Transoxonia), or by the literature name "Turan"...

[...]

Period from Russian conquest to the Soviets

Conflict with Russia started in 1865, shortly after Russian conquest
of Tashkent.The army of Bukhara was utterly defeated in three battles,
and on 18 June 1868 Amir Muzaffar al Din (r.1860-1885) signed a peace
treaty with the Russian governor-general of Turkestan  A.P. Von
Kaufman. Samarkand and its provinces were annexed by Russia and the
country was opened to the Russian merchants. The Amir retained his
throne as a vassal of Russia and made up his territorial losses by
establishing , with Russian help, control over moutainous regions in
the upper Zeravshan Valley in 1870 and by annexing the principalities
of the western Pamir in 1895.The sovereignty of the chant was not
formally limited, but it became a de facto protectorate, especially
after the crossing of its territory by Central Asian Railroad (1887)
and the subsequent inclusion of the khanate in Russia's customs
frontier (1895). Oficially,the two last Amirs were treated by the
Russian government as independent rulers,maintaining close relations
with the imperial court in Sankt Petersburg.The Russians did not
interfere in the internal affairs of the khanate, and the Russian
conquest had but superficial effect on the life of the country.A
reform movement developed after 1905, but it met with strong
opposition from the conservative Islamic clergy and was suppressed by
the Amir.At the end of August 1920 the last Amir,Sayid Alim Khan, was
overthrown as a result of the invasion of the khanate by Soviet
troops, and on 6 October the khanate was abolished and proclaimed the
Bukharan People's Soviet Republic.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5246/Bukhara.html

And see as well, e.g., ...

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

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

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

http://www.pagetour.org/article/Bukhara_center.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukharan_People%27s_Soviet_Republic

There's also one of these, apparently, in Bukhara ...

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

"T.D.Y."

Temporary Duty

http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r614_11.pdf

"His Majesty's Subdesertine Frigate Saksaul"

"His Majesty"

http://www.thepeerage.com/p10066.htm#i100651

http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/saxe_coburg_gotha.htm

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

Frigate

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

Saksaul

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

http://mirslovarei.com/content_oje/Saksaul-46384.html

Any particular reason(s) WHY "Saksaul"?  Help!  Thanks ...

"Captain Q. Zane Toadflax, Commander"

Q. = ?

ZANE
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: ZAYN   [key]

Meaning unknown, from a surname. It was borne by American author Zane
Grey (1872-1939). Zane was in fact his middle name - it had been his
mother's maiden name.

http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=zane

Pearl Zane Gray was born 31 January 1872 in Zanesville, Ohio. He was
one of five children born to Lewis M Gray, MD, and his wife, Alice
"Allie" Josephine Zane. Zane Grey would later drop his first name; his
family changed the spelling of their last name to Grey....

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

Toadflax

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

http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/t/toadfl19.html