ATDTDA 720

[Michael Bailey]

Thanks, Janos!

It's pretty clear that Pynchon cherishes international Dadaist and
avant-garde culture.  Even though Lajos is a very common name,
do you think it might be possible that it's an intentional pointer to Kassak?

The articles I looked at agree that he was a pacifist,
so he would have been distressed, had he sensed WWI coming.
Maybe enough so to fall asleep in a bathtub...

I found a page of English translations of some of his poems:
http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no143/p63.html

On 2/1/08, János Székely <miksaapja at gmail.com> wrote:
> Vaci ut (I spare the accents) simply means the Road (leading) to Vac, a town
> north of Budapest.
>
> The most probable etymology for Angyalfold is "Engelsfeld", a plot which
> used to be the vineyard of a 18th c. Tyrolean immigrant called Stefan Engl
> or Engel.
>
> The Britannica article on Kassak misses the point. Apart from being a fine
> Constructivist painter, he was the single most important (almost
> prophet-like) figure of Hungarian avantgarde poetry. Angyalfold, though, is
> a rather non-avantgarde novel. Lajos is Hung. for Louis, a very common name.
>
> Janos
>