AtDTDA: (8) Ecstatica

Wed May 9 03:05:48 CDT 2007

Looked into closely in her time by Sir Oliver Lodge. . . .

Birth: June 12, 1851 in Penkhull, Staffordshire, England

Death: August 22, 1940 in Amersham, Wiltshire, England

BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY

World famous British physicist and a fearless champion of 
after-death survival. He missed no opportunity to declare 
his belief that death is not the end, that there are higher 
beings in the scale of existence, and that intercommunica-
tion between this world and the next is possible.

http://tinyurl.com/2qrcst

Sir William Crokes:

Crookes, Sir William 1832-1919, man of science, was born 
in London 17 June 1832, the eldest son of Joseph Crookes, 
a tailor of north-country origin, by his second wife, Mary Scott. . . .
. . . .he rays which are injurious to the eyes of the work-people, 
may be cited among his many public services. Sir William 
Crookes was a great experimenter. His material discoveries are 
of lasting and fundamental value, though his theoretical 
speculations have not stood the test of time so well. While it is 
true that all scientific theories serve primarily only for the 
suggestion of further research, it must be admitted that 
Crookes's analytical power hardly equalled his gift as an 
investigator of new facts. His excursions into psychical research 
have been strongly criticized, and they certainly led him into 
some very curious situations, but they show that he thought all 
phenomena worthy of investigation, and refused to be bound by 
tradition and convention. He was a man of science in the broadest 
sense, an influential personality, and a doyen of his profession. 
There is a portrait of Crookes by E. A. Walton in the rooms of 
the Royal Society, and another by P. Ludovici in the National 
Portrait Gallery.

http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/icl/heyes/LanthAct/Biogs/Crookes.html

Don't know from Mrs. Piper, but concerning Eusapia Palladino:

         Eusapia Palladino
         1854-1918

                   Signora Raphael Delgaiz by marriage, the first physical 
         medium who stood in the crossfire of collective scientific 
         investigation for more than twenty years all over Europe and 
         in America. It is in large measure due to this strange woman 
         that the reality of physical phenomena and the psychological 
         complex of fraud was, at the close of the last and in the first 
         decade of the 20th century, vividly brought home to an array 
         of brilliant minds. . . .

I recommend that you read the entire article, it is so very full of the
particular quality of atmosphere that Pynchon is evoking here.

http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/mediums/palladino.htm

W. T. Stead:

         W.T. Stead was one of the most controversial men of his age. 
         Journalist, editor, author, pacifist, and spiritualist, he was the 
         most famous passenger aboard the ill-fated Titanic, and he 
         had a greater measure of notoriety than most British 
         statesmen. His "New Journalism" inspired today's powerful 
         tabloid journalism, and his many social campaigns had far 
         reaching effects that remain with us today. Yet, posterity 
         barely remembers him, save as an obscure figure in the 
         hinterland of journalistic history.
            Launched in 2001, the WTSRS seeks to return Stead to 
         his rightful position as one of Victorian/Edwardian Britain's 
         most important figures. It is today the largest online archive 
         of material on W.T. Stead.

http://www.attackingthedevil.co.uk/ 

         Nothing on Mrs. Burchell but:

         Obrenovich

         Assassination & coup

         The general impression was that as much as the senate was 
         packed with men devoted to the royal couple and the 
         government obtained a large majority at the general elections, 
         King Aleksandar would not hesitate any longer to proclaim 
         Queen Draga's brother as the heir to the throne.

         Apparently to prevent this, but in reality to replace Aleksandar 
         Obrenovi? with Petar Kara?or?evi? I, a conspiracy was 
         organised by the military. Their palace was invaded and the 
         Royal couple hid in a cupboard in the Queen's bedroom.

         The conspirators searched the palace and eventually 
         discovered the royal couple and savagely murdered them in 
         the early morning of June 11, 1903. King Aleksandar and 
         Queen Draga were shot and their bodies mutilated and 
         thrown from a window in the palace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandar_Obrenovi?

         "She was known to the T.W.I.T. as an "ecstatica," 
         a classification enjoying apparently somewhat 
         more respect than a common medium.
         "We don't go off into ordinary trances," Madame 
         E. explained.

         "More the ecstatic type," Lew supposed.

         He was rewarded with a steady and speculative 
         gaze. "I should be happy to demonstrate, 
         perhaps on some night less exhausting than this."
         228. 9/15

Pity, there's no way to post a copy of this image, 
acquired from a coffee-table book on Alfonse Mucha,
the wonderful Czech artist reknown for his posters,
the very apogee of Art Nouveau. There's an "ecstatica"
that I xeroxed, topless in harem pants, barefoot and 
with a rather wigged out facial expression. Divine. . . .

         . . . .it had been recorded by means of a 
         Parsons-Short Auxetophone. 228 18/19

         I have found a brief reference that says: "1898: 
         The compressed air Auxetophone is first used 
         to broadcast records of operatic arias from the 
         tops of the Blackpool Tower in England and the 
         Eiffel Tower in France." This was one Short's 
         first prototypes; it gives you an idea of just how 
         loud this thing could be.

http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/auxetophone/auxetoph.htm

As an audiophile and one time recording engineer, I adore the notion of 
steampunk exotica for recording seances. I have always felt that 
recordings of music are the best industrial transport of soul into "product".

         "We take electros. . . ." 228. 20 

Can't find a reference, but assume it's some form of duplication.

         The so-called "Bagdad" railway concession. 228. 28

http://tinyurl.com/2qx8ny

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/boshtml/bos139.htm

One can't help be sense that TRP's illuminating the Iraq
war here, giving us some sense that these sorts of maneouvers
have a long, long history.

As I recall, we will be seeing a fair amount of Clive Crouchmas in the pages to 
come.