AtDtDA(34): The Zabraneno

[Dave Monroe]

"'Around here they call it the Zabraneno.'" (AtD, Pt. IV, p. 952)


"the Interdikt"

690; 200-mile phosgene (poison gas) line: "'[Werfner's] plan [...] is
— insanely — to install all across the Peninsula, from a little east
of Sofia, here, roughly along the Balkan Range and the Sredna Gora,
coincident with the upper border of the former Eastern Roumelia, and
continuing on, at last to the Black Sea — das Interdikt, as he calls
it, two hundred miles long, invisible, waiting for certain
unconsidered footfalls and, once triggered, irreversible—pitiless. . .
.'"; 946;

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=I


"the Zabraneno"

Bulgarian: the forbidden. Same meaning as Interdikt.

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_946-975#Page_952


"'It behaves as if it's alive'"

What doesn't in Pynchon?


"an attar-factory rep"

Attar: a fragrant essential oil or perfume obtained from flowers;
attar of roses, a fragrant extract of the petals. And indeed, rose oil
is the most important commodity produced in the Rozovata Dolina, with
Kazanlak being the trade center for the product.


Philippopolis

Philippopolis is now Plovdiv, located 40-50 miles south of the valley.
Plovdiv was Philippopolis in 342 B.C., when it was conquered by Philip
II of Macedonia and by the 1st century A.D. had undergone 2 more name
changes: to Pulpudeva and to Thrimonzium. The name Plovdiv first
appeared around 1369.

That brings up an important point. There's all kinds of evidence in
AtD that Pynchon has appropriated history as he found it in
contemporary sources. And it's a good bet that much of the published
history came from Britain. Writers today like to use "local" names,
but that wasn't so in earlier times. The 1911 Brittanica, for example,
has entry after entry under "Henry" for monarchs who went by Heinrich,
Henri, Enrique and so forth. This now-unfashionable conservatism,
picked up and repeated in AtD, means we shouldn't expect to see a
reference to Sevastopol'; look instead for Sebastopol. Similarly we'd
see Budweis instead of České Budějovice if the subject of brewing
arose. And Philippopolis follows the pattern.

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_946-975#Page_952


Sredna Gora

Sredna Gora (Средна гора) is a mountain range in central Bulgaria,
situated south of and parallel to Balkan mountain range (Stara
Planina) ...

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