atdtda: 31 - pg 883/: Ziffer

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

 Bekah wrote:


> 883. 6  Cyprian's undies are made of Venetian lace from Melville & Ziffer   ?  are these Italian providers? 
> Melville is a Scottish or Irish name
> Ziffer is a Jewish name - Spain, Poland, Turkey,  now Israel
 
 
Ziffer is also a feminine German word:
 
"ZIFFER: figure, numeral, number, digit; coefficient; (SCHRIFTZEICHEN) cipher;"
 
A look into the telephone book ("Ziffer, Andrea --- Langenfelder Damm ... Ziffer, Hans --- Stahltwiete ...") shows
that the name is in use here too. Don't know about these people's religion or ethno-cultural background. Etymologically,
"Ziffer" goes back as far as the Old Indian word  "´súnya-" (empty) which then in Arabic became "sifr" (zero).
 
"Venetian lace from Melville & Ziffer"?! Could it be that Pynchon is kinda mocking himself by trying to sell us 
that he is giving with AtD the Great American Novel (cf. GR pp. 492ff: the name of Frau Gnahb can be read as
a strange anagram of Ahab, crazy captains both they are) in a math-historical (Ziffer as coefficient!) pomo remix?
 
(Well, probably not ... After I had written this mail so far, I seemed to remember something, did a quick Google
research and came up with the following: 
 
http://cgi.ebay.fr/catalogue-MELVILLE-ZIFFER-broderies-entredeux_W0QQitemZ220213126647QQihZ012QQcategoryZ89481QQcmdZViewItem
 
 
So M&Z were French providers ... 
 
"Melville & Ziffer
54 Faubourg Saint Honoré à Paris
modèles de: napperons, dentelles aux fuseaux, abat-jour en gros Venise ..."
 
What? Nah, I did not have anything better to do :) 
 
Kai      

 
 
 
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