AtDtDA23: Into the Folk-Dream

[Dave Monroe]

   "Forty years later on, on their own plunge through Deep Germany,
into the folk-dream behind the Black Forest ..." (AtD, Pt. III, p.
661)


Deep Germany

Cf. (?) ...

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/extra/map1.html


"the folk-dream"

Cf. (?) ...

"Does Britannia, when it sleeps, dream? Is America her dream? -- in
which all that cannot pass in the metropolitan Wakefulness is allow'd
Expression away in the restless Slumber of these Provinces, and on
West-ward, wherever 'tis not yet mapp'd, nor written down, nor ever,
by the majority of mankind, seen, -- serving as a very Rubbish-Tip for
subjunctive Hopes, for all that may yet be true, --" (M&D, Ch. 34, p.
345)

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_quotes.html


Black Forest

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Forest
http://www.blackforest-tourism.com/


"room for a hundred thousand troops"

?

World War I: The Belfort Ruse

During September 1918 an American colonel attempted an elaborate hoax
to deceive the Germans as to where the U.S. First Army's initial blow
of the Great War would fall....

http://www.historynet.com/wars_conflicts/world_war_1/3033531.html


"ten times as many elves"

Cf. ...

"the elf king and his queen made a royal progress every noon with a
splendid retinue of dwarves and sprites" (GR, Pt. II, p. 419)

"Do you talk to elves, Franz?" (GR, Pt. II, p. 430)

"Nordhausen, a city of elves" (GR, Pt. II, p. 431)

"bareback dwarves with little plastic masks around their eyes" (GR,
Pt. III, p. 664)

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


"as they moved southward and consonants began to grow blurry"

In historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or Second
Germanic consonant shift was a phonological development (sound change)
which took place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect
continuum in several phases, probably beginning between the 3rd and
5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest written
records in the High German language were made in the 9th century....

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


"much less to engage the rational mind"

"... the Gothic plot requires a setting which is sufficiently close to
the reader to appear threatening, while nevertheless being alien
enough to house all the exotic paraphernalia—the castles, the
convents, the caverns, the dark forests at midnight, the mysterious
villains and the howling specters."

http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/connotations/dittmer1223.htm

"Although the original barbarian tribes known by the name 'Goth' were
associated with Northern Europe, it is interesting to note that many
Gothic writers set their tales in Southern Europe....  For the writers
of these early Gothic tales, Southern Europe is now the source of
barbarism. One reason for this is probably the fact that most Gothic
writers were Protestant. Catholicism was seen as a superstitious form
of Christianity, and therefore closer to barbarism...."

http://my.opera.com/quentinscrisp/blog/show.dml/11604?cid=4116613&startidx=50#comment4116613


"shadows with undulating tails and moving wings passing across the
valley floors"

Cf. ...

"a kind of winged God" (AtD, Pt. II, p. 211)

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_199-218#Page_211
http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_644-677#Page_661

Brocken
329; mountain 20 miles NW of Mittelwerke in the Harz Mountains;
"plexus of German evil"; place where God-shadows
("Brockengespenstphänomen" - p.331) occur at sunrise, 330; specter,
759

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/alpha/b.html


"the Haupt-Bahnhof in Frankfurt"

Hauptbahnhof is the German term for "central railway station", and is
used to designate the principal passenger railway station of major
towns and cities which have multiple stations....

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

Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof (usually translated from German as
Frankfurt (Main) Central Station, short form: Frankfurt (Main) Hbf) is
the Hauptbahnhof for Frankfurt am Main and, along with Leipzig
Hauptbahnhof, is one of the largest terminal stations in Europe.
Regarding passenger volume alone, it is the second largest station
outside Japan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_%28Main%29_Hauptbahnhof


"the Wonderstructure of the Gallows-field"

Wunderstruktur der Galgen-Bereich?  Hilfe!

http://translate.google.com/translate_t?langpair=en|de

The area between Frankfurt city wall and the field of the gallows had
hardly been built-up by the early nineteenth century. Only farming
estates were to be found in this area. Near to the city gallows and as
an unprotected site outside the city walls it was left along for a
long time. As industrialisation came in the city walls and its gallows
were torn down to be replaced initially by villas with large gardens.
The technical advances were especially noticeable here. When in 1839
the Taunusbahn was taken into the still nassauisch town of Höchst am
Main, the first station was constructed on the Anlagenring. The track
of the Taunusbahnhof ran through the middle of the district of today's
station quarter. Later the stations of the Main-Neckar and
Main-Weser-Bahn were added to that. The western stations were in
enterprise together until 1888, after which time they were replaced by
the new central station of Frankfurt, which was situated another 500m
further west....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahnhofsviertel_(Frankfurt_am_Main)#History

Frankfurt city map, 1893: Station Quarter. The yet unbuilt areas were
used by three railway stations until 1888. They were replaced by the
new giant central station, Europe's largest station building at the
time, 600 metres to the east.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Meyers5_Frankfurt_Bahnhofsviertel.png


"the Wagnerian moment ... when the brakes failed on the Orient Express"

Train Wrecks Station at Frankfort.
December 7, 1901, Wednesday

FRANKFORT, Dec. 6.--A large part of the handsome railway station here
was wrecked this morning: by the Orient Express, the air brakes of
which failed to work. The train dashed into the station at full speed,
jumped the platform, and came to a standstill In the middle of the
waiting room. A few of the passengers were badly hurt, but none was
mortally injured. The people in the waiting room had remarkable
escapes.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9800E2D6153FE433A25754C0A9649D946097D6CF

Orient Express

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

Venice Simplon Orient Express

http://www.orient-express.com/web/vsoe/vsoe_a1a_splash.jsp