M & D Group Read (cont.)

[Thomas Eckhardt]

Speaking of checking off the obvious: The bar joke is echoed later on in 
the Captive's Tale (p. 511 ff.), that is it points forward to Zarpazo, 
the Wolf of Jesus, and Captain Zhang, the Chinaman (although, as Zhang 
emphasises, not necessarily a Lascivious Chinaman).

China and Chinamen come in through the Jesuits exploits in China and 
via, very broadly speaking, Feng Shui vs. Jesuit rationality and 
scientific prowess. But keep in mind that Captain Zhang and Zarpazo may 
actually be one and the same person.

Behind this I see, as I said, Hofstadter's essay with its take on 
Masonic and Jesuit conspiracy theories. The Captive's Tale appears to be 
inspired by the novel "Awful Disclosures", mentioned by Hofstadter.

As for the balloons, see Francesco Lana de Terzi and Bartolomeu de Gusmão.

I have no idea, however, who the Corsican might be...

> On Sun, Jan 21, 2018 at 4:50 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com 
> <mailto:mark.kohut at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>     A Chinaman, a Jesuit and a Corsican....etc.
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l