AtDTdA: (9) 249

[Jasper]

 249 The Chums in Venice (continued)

Page 249:
two distinct versions of 'Asia'

"Those whose enduring object is power in this world are only too happy to
use without remorse the others, whose aim is of course to transcend all
question of power. Each regards the other as a pack of deluded fools."

Over time, Pynchon appears to have come to a belief in a massive conflict
between cultures "valuing analysis and differentiation" and those valuing
"unity and integration". The two alternate maps of Asia could be a reference
to these disparate worldviews.
*wiki*

Another big-ol' mirror.

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The problem lies with the projection
(a) Projection by each group of its own obsession onto the other group. (b)
Cartographic projection, i.e., how the round world gets imaged onto a flat
sheet of paper.
*wiki*

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anamorphoscope
The text is accurate, and it's a real device:
An instrument for restoring a picture or image distorted by anamorphosis to
its normal proportions. It usually consists of a cylindrical mirror.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Anamorphoscope

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paramorphoscope
AtD is itself a paramorphoscope; satire and science fiction typically hold
up a distorting mirror to the world in which they are written, and present
worlds "set to the side of the one we have taken". In the end the correct
paramorphic "mirror" shows the world clearly.
*wiki*

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"a certain percentage of them went mad and ended up in the asylum on San
Servolo"
Cf. the Northern Ohio Insane Asylum with its light-obsessed inmates at page
59.
*wiki*

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the asylum on San Servolo
First established as a military hospital in 1715, later became a mental
asylum. Seems that San Servolo is to Venice what Bedlam is to London.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Servolo
*wiki*

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hyperboloidal
Adj form of hyperboloid:
Either of two quadric surfaces generated by rotating a hyperbola about
either of its main axes and having a finite center with certain plane
sections that are hyperbolas and others that are ellipses or circles.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hyperboloid

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Clifford's term
W.K. Clifford, (1845-1879): an English mathematician. Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kingdon_Clifford
*wiki*
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