AtDTDA: (8) 230-231 Penny Black

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

I'm a big fan of the Crying of Lot 49, I read half of it again today. 
I'm looking at any potential relationship twixt Gengis Cohen and 
the Grand Cohen. I'm up to page 83. Gengis seems to be in the 
mix so we can have a phallatic maven on board, to show us the 
particulars of stamp collecting.  But whatever it is that wants the 
stamps, Gengis Cohen is one of them. While Oedipa awaits the 
crying of lot 49, she's in the same room as Gengis Cohen, he's 
probably the only person in that courtroom she knows in the slightest.

In this section of Against the Day, the Grand Cohen gives us
a metaphysical take on the "Penny Black":

          "Had the demented potboy Edward Oxford's pistol 
          shots found their mark sixty years ago. . . ."  230. 30/31

          Edward Oxford (Born Birmingham, 1822) was tried for 
          high treason for attempting to assassinate the British 
          Queen, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom while 
          she was out riding on Constitution Hill with her husband, 
          Prince Albert. He was acquitted by reason of insanity in 
          July of 1840, and sent to Bethlem Royal Hospital, where 
          he remained until the criminal patients of the institution 
          were transferred to Broadmoor Hospital in 1864. Three 
          years later, he was offered a discharge if he would 
          agree to leave the country. He went to Australia and 
          was never heard of again.

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

Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick:

          Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
          Ernest Augustus (German: Ernst August) (17 November 
          1887, Penzing near Vienna – 30 January 1953, Castle 
          Marienburg), reigning Duke of Brunswick (2 November 
          1913-8 November 1918), was a grandson of King 
          George V of Hanover, whom the Prussians deposed in 
          1866. The last reigning monarch of the House of 
          Hanover, Ernst August was a direct descendant of 
          Henry the Lion.


          Ancestry and Early Life

          Ernst's great-grandfather, Prince Ernest Augustus, 
          Duke of Cumberland, was the fifth son of King 
          George III of the United Kingdom who became 
          king of Hanover in 1837 because Salic Law barred 
          Queen Victoria from reigning in Germany. . . .

http://www.answers.com/topic/ernest-augustus-duke-of-brunswick

          ". . . .at Constitutional Hill, had the young Queen 
          died then without issue, the insupportably 
          loathsome Ernst Agust, Duke of Cumberland 
          would have become King of England, and Saltic 
          law being thus once more observed, the thrones 
          of Hannover and Britain would have been 
          reunited. . . ." 230. 31/35

And that would have been "Queer Street" for us all.

          A sort of grim counter-Christmas runs from the 
          first to the twelfth of July, anniversaries of the 
          Boyne and Aughrim. 231. 2/3 

          The Battle of the Boyne was a turning point in the 
          Williamite War in Ireland when the deposed King 
          James VII of Scotland and James II of England 
          and Ireland and his Jacobite supporters were 
          defeated by James' son-in-law, William III, who 
          had deposed him, along with his Williamite forces. 
          Both Kings acted as Commander of their respective 
          armies. . . .

http://www.answers.com/topic/ernest-augustus-duke-of-brunswick

Not being nearly as familiar with Britis Colonial history as I should be, I'm
grasping at straws here (anyone who wishes to amplify, correct or simply
take advantage of this lovely W.A.S.T.E. mail system that we deploy is
enjoined to chime in here), but I sense some kinship with "V. For Vendetta"
in these passages.

However:

          Now we have also Victoria's unbending refusals 
          to consider the passage of Time, for example 
          her insistence for more than sixty years that the 
          only postal image of her be that of the young girl 
          on the first adhesive staqmps of 11840, the year 
          of dim young Oxfords assassination attempt. 231. 9/12

That stamp is the "Penny Black", we've already met a character named 
Penny Black on page 18, but here's the stamp:


          The advent of the adhesive postage stamp officially 
          began on May 6, 1840 with the release of the famous 
          Penny Black and 2 days later the Tuppence Blue. 
          Thus began a series of events that was to change 
          how the world communicated. The early issues of 
          Great Britain, from May 1840 until 1855, where 
          printed almost exclusive using the line engraved 
          (gravure, recess) printing method. Billions of 
          stamps were printed using more than 480 printing 
          plates.

http://www.kernunnos.com/Philately/GBQVLE.html

http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/queen's/worldsfirststamps-list2.html

Note that the "Penny Black" was the very first adhesive postage stamp,
the very beggining of stamp collection, or philately. 

The notion of the Penny Black was to turn the costs of sending letters 
away from the recipients of the letters, to the senders of the letters. 
Microsoft's "Penny Black" project intends to do the same with e-mail,
finding a means of charging the sources of spam:

http://research.microsoft.com/research/sv/PennyBlack/ 

Nookshaft then expounds on the theme of alternate universes, 
threads of history that were not persued, alternates historys that 
might have been, instead of the miasma we've been delivered:

          ". . . .suppose the 'real' Vic is elsewhere. Suppose 
          the flowering young woman is being held captive, 
          immune to Time, by some ruler of some underworld, 
          with periodic connubial visits from Albert allowed, 
          neither of them aging, in love as passionately as in 
          the last terrible moment ascending to the palace, 
          the Princess Royal forever three and a half months 
          in her womb, the lovely springtime of early 
          pregnancy rushing through mother and child in a 
          flow that Time will never touch. 231. 24/30

On the one hand, a fork in the river of time. On the other, a host of 
metaphysicalconcepts, perhaps magickal workings insinuated into
the Grand Cohen's speech.Nookshaft thinks of the demonic 

          ". . . .twin professors Renfrew and Werfner, 
          acting somehow as temporal flow between 
          England and Hannover."

          "Lew was dismayed. "Cohen, man, that's horrible."

          The Grand Cohen shrugged. "Only a bit of fun. 
          You Yanks are so serious." 231. 34/40