M&D - Chapter 21 - Nabob

[Monte Davis]

"Mogul" was and is more common for the wealthy and powerful. "Nabob" was
archaic/exotic to an American ear even when Agnew's speechwriter, the
egregious William Safire, used it in 1970.  Outside of histories and
historical fiction, I can't remember seeing or hearing it since *except* in
reference to that speech, or to its premise that *real* Americans are
quietly content, while critics are not to be taken seriously (cf. Tory
usage of "the chattering classes" in the UK).

On Sun, Apr 12, 2015 at 1:31 PM, Elisabeth Romberg <eromberg at mac.com> wrote:

> p. 209
>
> *Nabob, meaning:*
> Somtimes a picture says it all…
>
> http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0EdR8gy0NuM/VJfaCSjPReI/AAAAAAAABOM/3DPP7xmbuDM/s1600/%2BBritish%2Bnabobs%2B8f878ea0803189dcd4867928ffaf1eb9_M.jpg
>
>
> "An Anglo-Indian <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Indian> term for a
> conspicuously wealthy man who made his fortune in the Orient
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orient>, especially in the Indian
> subcontinent <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_subcontinent>. It also
> refers to an East India Company
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company> servant who had become
> wealthy through corrupt trade and other practices."
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabob
>
> *Also an expression famously used by Nixon’s speechwriter William Safire
> in a speech by vice-president Spiro Agnew:*
>
> http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Nabobs_natter_about_the_passing_of_William_Safire_1929-2009.html
>
> I am curious to know, what is the contemporary understanding/use, if any,
> in the English language today? What sort of associations does it bring
> forth in you?
>
> —
>
> Elsewhere on the page, from Pynchon wiki:
> *Pelhamites*
> Followers of Henry Pelham (25 September 1694 – 6 March 1754), a British
> Whig statesman, who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 27
> August 1743 until his death in 1754. He was the younger brother of the
> politician the Duke of Newcastle who succeeded him as Prime Minister. From
> WIKI <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Pelham>.
> *Placeman*
> *British*- a person appointed to a position, esp. one in the government,
> as a reward for political support of an elected official.
> http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_21:_207-214
>
>
> 12. apr. 2015 kl. 19.13 skrev Elisabeth Romberg <eromberg at mac.com>:
>
> Next paragraph, an imagined dialogue between Mason and his father as
> Jerome points out. Do you agree, though, that the last sentence: «All
> subjunctive, of course, *had *young Mason gone to his father, this *might
> have been* the conversation likely to result.» is over the top. I mean
> it’s not as if we’ve forgotten it was imaginary from the start?
>
> Don't you feel a little underestimated as a reader?
>
> ;)
>
> 12. apr. 2015 kl. 14.07 skrev Elisabeth Romberg <eromberg at mac.com>:
>
> In the next paragraph we are with Mason an Rebekah, early days.
> We learn how he longs to get away from The Golden Valleys, but what is
> Rebekah’s agenda? We got the impression in chapter 18 that something was up
> with her.
>
> (p. 170-171, she new who he was, a star-gazer. But most telling, on p.
> 186, «A Pair of Gentlemen came to me one day and said, ‘Here is the one you
> must marry.’»)
>
> So it’s hard not to have this in the back of the mind when we read about
> their dating and courtship.
> Maybe even explore feelings of sadness for Mason? For being kept in the
> dark by Rebekah?
>
>
>
> 12. apr. 2015 kl. 13.43 skrev Elisabeth Romberg <eromberg at mac.com>:
>
> p. 207
> «…that the Flow of Water through Nature (…) might be re-shap’d to drive a
> Row of Looms, each working thousands of Yarns in strictest
> right-angularity, (…) nor that every stage of the ‘Morphosis, would have
> it’s equivalent in Pounds, Shillings and Pence."
>
>
> Stroud is the capital of the south western Cotswolds and located at the
> divergence of the five Golden Valleys (Chalford, Painswick, Nailsworth,
> Slad and Cam), so named after the monetary wealth created in the processing
> of wool from the plentiful supply of power from the River Frome. During the
> heyday of the wool trade the river powered 150 mills, turning Stroud into
> the centre of the local cloth industry.
>
>
> Is this first paragraph about the inhumanity of the working conditions at
> the mills?
> To the benefit of the few?
>
> *About the working conditions at the mills:*
> http://www.bacuptimes.co.uk/earlydays.htm
> So sad.
>
> *Mills today:*
> *http://plenty.mangoconsulting.co.uk/assets/files/press/2015/Cots%20Life%20Jan%2015%20-%20Stroud%20mills.pdf
> <http://plenty.mangoconsulting.co.uk/assets/files/press/2015/Cots%20Life%20Jan%2015%20-%20Stroud%20mills.pdf>*
> http://www.visitthecotswolds.org.uk/general.asp?pid=22&pgid=822
>
> *"Britain from above" showing Fromehall and Lodgemore Woollen Mills and
> environs, in Stroud, 1938:*
>
> http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw059695?name=STROUD&gazetteer=STROUD&POPULATED_PLACE=STROUD&ADMIN_AREA=Stroud&ref=49
>
>
>
>
>
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