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some things I needed to look up while reading Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Most of these are derived from Wikipedia.
| word or phrase | relevant defintion? | page # | quote snippet | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| batman | a British military officer's orderly | 11 | ..by his batman, a Corporal Wayne. | reference to Batman superhero? |
| palatal | type of consonant - like jar in English | 11 | ... thick palatals of their hunger lost somewhere... | hunger/eating noises produced by the people eating breakfast? |
| narodnik | Populists in Russia in the 1860's and 1870's | 11 | ...are making believe to be narodnik... | |
| Iasi | Romanian city | 11 | ...they are of Iasi, of Codreanu,... | |
| Codreanu | far-right anti-semitic Romanian politician 1899-1938 | 11 | ...they are of Iasi, of Codreanu, his men, men of the League,... | League refers to the Iron Guard / Legion of the Archangel Michael? |
| phantasmagoria | form of theater in which ghosts etc. are projected onto a screen or smoke | 12 | Accompanying will be a phantasmagoria, a real one, rushing toward the screen... | |
| dacoits | Indian bandits | 13 | ...in which he would be abducted by an organization of dacoits or Sicilians... | |
| Novi Pazar | city in southwest Serbia | 14 | ...who at the time occupied the Novi Pazar desk at the Foreign Office... | |
| sanjak | administrative division of the Ottoman Empire | 14 | ...for on this obscure sanjak had once hinged the entire fate of Europe... | Refers to Novi Pazar as a sanjak |
| busby | hungarian military head-dress | 15 | ...naughtily attired in Busbies and jackboots... | |
| palimpsest | manuscript / book page that has been scraped clean so it can be reused | 16 | ...their lips were palimpsests of secret flesh... | |
| croix mystique | specific symbol/shapes/lines found on hand when doing palm readings - "denotes a natural gift or talent for mysticism and occultism of all kinds" | 16 | Novi Pazar, anyhow, was still a croix mystique on the palm of Europe... | is this trying to say that Novi Pazar is an important indicator of Europe as a whole? Or does this refer to just the French phrase directly "Mystic Cross" (mystical cross?) |
| pidgin | simplified, ad hoc language developed for communication between 2 groups that do not share a common language | 16 | Though he was able to develop a pidgin by which he and the Adenoid could communicate... | |
| hod | refers either to a brick hod (three sided box for carrying bricks or mortar) or a coal scuttle (bucket-like container for holding coal) | 16 | ...bringing hods full of the white substance, in relays, up the ladder... | |
| alienist | outdated(?) synonym for psychiatrist | 16 | ...alienists in black seven-button suits... | |
| musette bag | type of military satchel | 17 | ||
| capsicum | refers to a genus of peppers, or to chili peppers themselves | 17 | ...menthol and capsicum Meloids for a Mellow Voice... | |
| Meloids | a throat losenge | 17 | ...menthol and capsicum Meloids for a Mellow Voice... | |
| SHAEF | Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force | 17 | ...each in the shape of the flaming SHAEF sword... | |
| Garrard's | famous London jeweller | 17 | ...which Mother had Garrard's make up for him... | |
| ATS | Auxiliary Territorial Service - service for women in the British Army in WWII | 17 | ...good-natured bespectacled ATS, waves him on upstairs. | |
| lino | slang for linoleum. Also slang for habitual user of cocaine | 17 | The floor is filthy lino... | Wonder if he used lino instead of linoleum b/c of the other slang definition - as a remembrance of the cocaine being applied to the adenoid in the last section? |
| gooseneck lamp | a lamp with a very adjustable neck that can be bent to various angles / positions | 18 | ...on with the gooseneck lamp... | |
| ETO | European Theater of Operations | 18 | There must be cubicles like this all over the ETO... | |
| library paste | glue-like adhesive made from water and flour or water and starch | 18 | ...decomposing library paste... | |
| heliotrope | pink-purple color | 18 | ...pencils of all colors including the hard-to-get heliotrope and raw umber... | |
| buff ration books | a type of food rationing book used in Britain in WWII. The color (buff) indicated it was for an adult. Pregnant women and children got different colors indicating higher priority | 18 | ...empty buff ration books... | |
| pantechnicon | a moving van | 19 | ...and the piano in the pantechnicon... | |
| Blackpool | English soccer team | 19 | ...a quid wager on the Blackpool-Preston North End game... | |
| Preston North End | English soccer team | 19 | ...a quid wager on the Blackpool-Preston North End game... | |
| beaverboard | a wood-like building material | 19 | He moves back down the beaverboard maze... | |
| stens | a British 9mm submachine gun | 20 | ...Mark III Stens set on automatic... | |
| T.I. | Tactical Intelligence? | 20 | ...his opposite number from T.I.... | |
| S.O.E. | Special Operations Executive | 20 | ...a Captain Prentice from S.O.E.... | |
| TDY | Temporary DutY | 20 | ...order sending him TDY some hospital... | |
| Minnesota Multphasic | a personality test | 21 | Some more of that Minnesotate Multiphasic shit, no doubt. |
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