ATDTDA: (36) pgs 1030-1038

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Bekah,

My computer's been having a meltdown and seemed to freeze (mixed metaphor) every time I tried to respond to any of your posts, so if this one gets through, just wanted to thank you for the double hosting you undertook.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Bekah <bekker2 at mac.com>
>Sent: Jul 15, 2008 10:18 PM
>To: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: ATDTDA: (36) pgs 1030-1038
>
>And on to the  Ætheronauts,  light/dark and moving pictures
>
>
>
>****************
>page 1030
>
>* Sodality of Ætheronauts
>A sodality is a society; the ætheronauts use the æther as their  
>medium of flight via mechanical wings - they are religious novices.   
>The Chums figure they were destined to have families but the girls  
>could never really go to earth so they nested on the city rooftops
>
>* nitronaphthol - engine fuel
>* chaffinch a pretty little bird
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaffinch
>
>****************
>Page 1030
>
>The girls' names are:
>
>* Heartsease - a flower - Viola tricolor - which has the medicinal  
>quality of lifting the spirits, i.e., "Mends a broken heart" -  she  
>pairs up with Randolph
>
>* Primula - the Primrose (Primula vulgaris) has the medicinal quality  
>of inducing sleep and she pairs up with Miles
>
>* Viridian, from the Latin for "green," and she's definitely "green",  
>as demonstrated by this scolding of Chick Counterfly: "Fumes are not  
>the future,"
>pairs up with Chick
>
>* Blaze, "Burning dead dinosaurs and whatever they ate ain't the  
>answer, Crankshaft Boy."
>pairs up with Darby
>"each had found her way to this Ætherist sorority through the  
>mysteries of"  - ta-da, ta-da...  "inconvenience..."   (lower case)  
>such as a missed train or  great waves of wind,  light saturation
>
>******************
>
>page 1031
>
>(what is this -  a bunch of science stuff I have no comprehension of)
>
>
>Like Sidney and Beatrice Webb around here."  -  British socialists of  
>the day.
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrice_Webb
>
>The Chums flew northwest and found the City of our Lady - Queen of  
>the Angels -
>Los Angeles was founded in 1781 as "Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina  
>de los Ángeles."
>Reina = Queen,  fairly common female name in Spanish
>
>"... where on earth is this - that's sort of the problem - the on  
>earth part."  Indicating that this likely is the counter earth,   
>although I don't know why this couldn't  be the real earth and the  
>other one was the counter earth.  How could one tell?
>
>
>
>And the coming darkness cast by the light:
>
>And in Southern California light is flooding forth form suburban  
>homes and so on - factory sky-lights - athletic fields, city plazas,   
>automobile lights -
>
>"... they felt themselves an uneasy witness to some final conquest, a  
>triumph over night whose motive none could quite grasp."
>
>
>****************
>Page 1033
>
>Light seems to have won over darkness,  but that's not necessarily  
>good news as there are side effects to the conquest of darkness:
>Labor now works overtime and xtra work-shifts?
>But there is additional employment - further expansion -
>
>The Chums debate briefly:
>"Yup groundhog sweat misery and early graves."
>more investment in these things and ...
>
>"I am as fond of the subjunctive mood as any."
>"fuck you," =  "Long live capitalism"
>
>
>Darkness from the light:
>Miles:   "Lucifer - son of the morning - bearer of light - Prince of  
>Evil
>http://www.dpjs.co.uk/lucifer.html
>
>Isaiah's epithet for the King of Babylon with Christ's vision -  
>according t o Luke, of Satan falling like lighting from heaven.
>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2010:18-10:18&version=9
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer
>Satan - etc.
>
>
>But their "paycheck"  bounces so our boys are in California without  
>evident means of support
>
>****************
>
>Page 1034
>
>At a Hollywood hot dog stand called "Links"  (like the very real  
>Pinks of Hollywood?) ...
>http://www.pinkshollywood.com/pgz/history.htm
>(but Pinks opened in 1940 or so - )
>
>
>  Chick Counterfly runs into his  father, Dick who drives a Packard  
>and lives in a  Beaux Arts mansion on West Adams with his 3rd wife,   
>Treacle (dark and syrupy sweet - will probably rot your teeth).
>
>1914 Packard -
>http://www.autogallery.org.ru/k/p/14pacmodel238touring_HMN.jpg
>
>Beaux Arts mansion
>http://architecture.about.com/od/periodsstyles/ig/House-Styles/Beaux- 
>Arts.htm
>
>West Adams, LA
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Adams,_Los_Angeles,_California
>A large area of now historic homes in LA.
>
>"The West Adams area was developed between 1880 and 1925, and  
>contains many diverse architectural styles of the era. Architectural  
>styles seen in West Adams include the Queen Anne, Shingle, Gothic  
>Revival, Transitional Arts and Crafts, American Craftsman/Ultimate  
>Bungalow, Craftsman Bungalow, Colonial Revival, Renaissance Revival,  
>Mediterranean Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, Mission Revival,  
>Egyptian Revival, Beaux-Arts and Neoclassical styles. West Adams  
>boasts the only Greene and Greene house in Los Angeles. Its historic  
>homes are frequently used as locations for movies and TV shows  
>including CSI, Six Feet Under, The Shield, Monk, Confessions of a  
>Dangerous Mind and Of Mice and Men."
>
>Dick shows off his machinery - a big spinning disk  - Nipkow scanner   
>1884 which was invented by Paul Nipkow in 1884 and used for very  
>early stages of television. Although capable of high-speed scanning,  
>conventional Nipkow disks failed to provide enough amounts of light  
>to image fluorescence from live cells.
>
>http://www.yokogawa.com/scanner/products/csu10e.htm
>
>http://www.diycalculator.com/popup-h-console.shtml#A3
>
>They apparently access Gilligan's Island what with the sailor-hatted  
>monkey (Dobey Gillis),  the palm tree and the Skipper showing up on  
>the screen.  Dick says he picks this one up every week.
>
>****************
>
>Page 1035
>
>Chick and Dick go to meet Merle Rideout and Roswell Bounce at the Van  
>Nuys balloon field.  Roswell is paranoid
>
>****************
>Page 1036
>Oxone . . . Blattnerphone components
>
>Oxone - a type of oxidizer
>
>The Blattnerphone  recorder     http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/ 
>gramophone/m2-3021.3-e.html
>
>
>
>Fleming valve
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleming_valve
>
>Lee De Forest added that grid electrode to the Fleming valve
>The Fleming valve--named for British electrical engineer Sir John  
>Ambrose Fleming (1849–1945)--was an early form of diode (a vacuum  
>tube in which electrons flow in one direction, from a heated filament  
>to a plate). In 1907, De Forest (AtD, p. 29) created the triode out  
>of the diode by inserting a curved mesh grid, whose voltage could be  
>varied, between the filament and the plate.
>
>output . . . can be the indefinite integral of any signal
>
>Long discussion mostly removed to the Discussion page on Jan. 23, 2008
>This is in fact an elegant mathematical, or, better, 'pataphysical,  
>expression of the phenomenon of looking at a single photograph and  
>imagining it as part of a movie (which is after all just a sequence  
>of still photographs), or of many possible movies--the movie is the  
>integral of the photograph. This is techno-mathematical nonsense of a  
>very particular kind: an example of 'Pataphysics [5], which its  
>originator, the absurdist novelist and playwright Alfred Jarry [6] 
>(1873-1907) defined as "The science of imaginary solutions". His  
>fictional creation Dr. Faustroll explains that 'Pataphysics deals  
>with "the laws which govern exceptions and will explain the universe  
>supplementary to this one". One can imagine any number of possible  
>"movies" or world-lines, for the subject of a photograph, any number  
>of alternate histories and supplementary universes.
>
>paranoia querelans
>Misspelling of querulans. This page describes the disorder.
>
>
>They've got the theory now to find the analogies
>but Roswell is paranoid - querelans
>
>they accumulate stuff not knowing what to do with it but sure enough  
>- they find something -
>
>photo of downtown LA - Merle rocked the carbons - took from the  
>cabinet a brilliant red crystal - Lorandite - from Macedonia before  
>the Balkan wars - pure thallium arsenosulphide -
>
>
>Merle [...] took from a wall safe a brilliant red crystal, brought it  
>over to a platinoid housing and carefully slid it into place.  
>"Lorandite — brought out of Macedonia before the Balkan Wars, pure  
>thallium arsenosulfide, purer quality than you can find anymore."
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorandite
>* Lorandite is a thallium arsenic sulfosalt with formula: TlAsS2. It  
>was first discovered at Alshar, Republic of Macedonia in 1894 and  
>named after Loránd Eötvös, physicist at the University of Budapest.  
>The lorandite is thought to have the potential to unravel the so- 
>called "neutrino puzzle." By serving as a geochemical detector of the  
>neuron, the lorandite could validate or disprove the theory of the  
>standard solar system, say physicists. In simple terms—it would let  
>us understand the work of the Sun.
>
>http://tw.strahlen.org/fotoatlas1/lorandite_foto.html
>
>
>
>* Thallium - a form of poison
>
>http://drnickonline.blogspot.com/2006/11/thallium-poisoning- 
>everything-russian.html
>
>
>
>* Iron arsenosulfide is the most common ore of arsenic. It is found  
>in Mexico (Mapimí), Sweden (Tunaberg) and the U.S. (Montana).
>
>According to Risto Karajkov writing in "World Press":
>
>
>
>**
>
>Moving pictures:
>
>"They bring the still life to action -  then many others of American  
>lives unquestionably in motion  - effect was of a small city in frames
>
>He was on a mission to set free the images not just the photographs   
>but also of all that came his way - prince who with his kiss releases  
>that Sleeping Beauty into wakefulness.
>
>********************
>
>Page  1038
>"old gaffers"
>A gaffer in the motion picture industry is the head of the electrical  
>department, responsible for the execution (and sometimes the design)  
>of the lighting plan for a production. In British English the term  
>gaffer is long established as meaning an old man, or the foreman of a  
>squad of workmen. (In U.S. English, similarly, "Pappy" is a nickname  
>for the leader of such a group—like Pappy Hod in V..)
>
>The term was also used to describe men who adjusted lighting in  
>English theatre and men who tended street lamps, after the "gaff"  
>they used, a pole with a hook on its end [7].
>
>One seller of gaffer's tape (used in theater and film) says the  
>"gaff" story is incorrect, but it isn't clear this is correct,  
>because long poles called "hi-tech focusing aids" are definitely  
>still used in theater.
>
>The "old man" meaning comes from a dialectal pronunciation of  
>"grandfather."   Roswell and Merle are gaffers (old men /  
>electricians/old men).
>
>
>******
>Bekah
>and over to Mark -
>
>
>
>
>
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>