Register / Create an Account
View source for Pages 321-342

You do not have permission to edit this page, for the following reason:
The action you have requested is limited to users in the group: Users.
You can view and copy the source of this page:
{{PbP Header}}

=☽ November 8th, YDAU - Interdependence Day - Eschaton=

==Page 321==

'''''GAUDEAMUS IGITUR'''''<br />
Latin: Let Us Rejoice. The first line of (and alternative title for) the student song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudeamus_igitur 'De Brevitate Vitae'], often sung at graduation ceremonies.

==Page 322==

'''Eschaton'''<br />
The name of the game is based on "eschatology" (from the Greek ἔσχατος, Eschatos meaning "last" and -logy meaning "the study of") which is a part of theology and philosophy concerned with what is believed to be the final events in the history of the world, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschatology Wikipedia]

'''frisson'''<br />
a sudden sense of excitement

'''puerile'''<br />
childish

'''Wilmington DE'''<br />
a city 30 miles southwest of Philadelphia

'''''vademecum''ish'''<br/>
vade mecum - Latin for "go with me"; like a reference handbook intended to be carried everywhere.

[[Subsidized Time|Y.P.W]]

'''Bunyan'''<br />
John Bunyan (1628-1688) was an English-Calvinist preacher and writer. You can read ''Pilgrim's Progress'' [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim%27s_Progress here].

'''Luger'''<br />
a German brand of handgun

'''''Anschluss'''''<br/>
German for "union"; possibly forced annexation, involving occupation.  ''Anschluss'' often refers to German annexation of Austria before WWII. [http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/bibliography/?lang=en&content=anschluss] 

'''AMNAT'''<br />
The United States of America and other NATO nations

'''SOVWAR'''<br />
The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations

'''REDCHI'''<br />
The People's Republic of China

'''LIBSYR'''<br />
Libya and Syria

'''IRLIBSYR'''<br />
LIBSYR plus Iran and Iraq

'''INDPAK'''<br />
India and Pakistan

==Page 323==

'''Mean-Value Theorem for Integrals'''<br />
Learn it [https://www.khanacademy.org/math/integral-calculus/solid_revolution_topic/function-average-value/v/mean-value-theorem-integrals here]. It should be noted that Wallace does not actually explain the theorem.

==Endnote 123==

'''Extreme Value Theorem'''<br />
This is explained [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ExtremeValueTheorem.html here].

'''datums'''<br />
The proper plural is "data."

'''ordnance'''<br />
guns, cannon, artillery, weapons, arms, munitions, military supplies, materiel.

==Page 323 (cont'd)==

'''synoptic'''<br />
by way of summary

'''Yahtzee'''<br />
a popular [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahtzee parlor game] played with dice

==Endnote 124==

'''Aapps Inc.'''<br />
There is an actual company by this name, though whether this is the same company to which Wallace refers, I don't know.

==Page 323 (cont'd)==

'''three-prong'''<br />
a three-pronged outlet

'''Dürer's 'The Magnificent Beast''''<br />
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) was a German engraver, painter, and mathematician. You can see the work cited [http://www.art.com/asp/sp-asp/_/pd--12367630/sp--A/Apocalypse_the_Great_Beast.htm here].

'''bellicosity'''<br />
a warlike disposition

'''Presque Isle ME'''<br />
a city of Maine about 20 miles west of the border with New Brunswick, Canada

'''Chyonskrg Kurgistan'''<br />
Assuming that (a) the name of the town is spelled correctly, and (b) the country is [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kg.html Kyrgyzstan], I can't find this town on a [http://www.fallingrain.com/world/KG/ directory of towns] in Kyrgyzstan.

'''Pliscu Romania'''<br />
There doesn't seem to be a real city by this name either, though ''pliscu'' seems to be a word pertaining to the nose.

==Page 324==

'''PCs'''<br />
Personal Computers

'''topspin'''<br />
spin given to a ball in tennis causing it to rotate forward

'''profligate'''<br />
recklessly extravagant

'''metastasizes'''<br />
spreads like cancer

'''SUFDDIR - self evident'''<br />
Suffered from Death, Destruction, and Incapacitation of Response

'''EM'''<br />
electromagnetic

'''baroque'''<br />
extravagantly ornate

'''quorum'''<br />
the required minimum number of people required to carry forth a particular task

==Page 325==

'''DEFCON'''<br />
Defense Readiness Condition, i.e., the measure of the activation of the U.S. Armed Forces in reaction to a real or perceived threat. The higher the number, the lower the threat; the numbers as used in ''Infinite Jest'' are used incorrectly, i.e., the higher the DEFCON number, the higher the risk.

'''theater'''<br />
here used as a military term for an area in which warfare is carried out

==Endnote 125==

'''dilettantes'''<br />
people who (in this case) play tennis merely for amusement

==Page 325 (cont'd)==

'''Achilles' heel'''<br />
This denotes a single weakness, taken from Greek mythology and the warrior Achilles, hero of the ''Iliad,'' who was made invincible to weapons by his mother dipping him in the river Styx. However, because he was held by his heel, he was vulnerable in this single place; Paris was able to kill Achilles by wounding him in the heel with an arrow.

'''goes tactical'''<br />
enters the phase of using tactical nuclear weapons

'''Sinkiang'''<br />
an alternate spelling for the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinkiang Xinjiang province] of China

'''Aleutians'''<br />
an archipelago of Islands stretching west from the coast of Alaska toward (and over) the International Date Line

'''SS10s'''<br />
a type of Soviet surface-to-surface (SS) missile

'''El Al'''<br />
Israel's national airline

'''airbus'''<br />
properly, Airbus, a European manufacturer of passenger aircraft of all ranges

'''both H'sseins'''<br />
Hussein I (1935-1999), king of Jordan, and Saddam Hussein (1937-2006), president of Iraq

'''Ft. Chimo'''<br />
another name for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Chimo Kuujjuaq, Québec], in the Arctic Circle

'''Labrador'''<br />
the mainland part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland

'''Volgograd'''<br />
Formerly known as Tsaritsyn and then Stalingrad, this is a city of Russia on the Volga River, downriver from Moscow.

'''Stolichnaya'''<br />
a Russian brand of vodka

==Endnote 126==

'''picayune'''<br />
small or trifling

'''TRISITs'''<br />
triggering situations

==Page 325 (cont'd)==

[[Image:Gorbachev.jpg|thumb|Mikhail Gorbachev|right]]

'''F16s'''<br />
American [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-16 fighter jets]

'''Cape Flattery Naval Base'''<br />
It's not clear whether there is a naval base at Cape Flattery currently, but the town itself is in the state of Washington, about 140 miles west-northwest of Seattle.

'''Irkutsk'''<br />
a large city in Russian Siberia

'''Dzhugdzhur Range'''<br />
a mountain range in far east Siberia

'''SOVWAR's bald and port-wine-stained premier'''<br />
This is no doubt a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorbachev Mikhail Gorbachev] (see right), the last head of state of the USSR, although he was never premier.

==Endnote 127==

'''Wolf-spiders'''<br />
a type of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_spider arachnid]

==Page 325 (cont'd)==

'''Prince Albert in a can'''<br />
An old phone gag explained in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Albert_tobacco Wikipedia entry] for the popular pipe tobacco sold in the distinctive red tin can with its portrait of Prince Albert (later King Edward VII) on its obverse side.

'''Sakhalin'''<br />
a Russian [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakhalin island] in the Pacific Ocean

==Page 326==

'''Portsmouth OH'''<br />
a town about 90 miles due south of Columbus, Ohio

'''four kilgrams'''<br />
about 8.8 pounds

'''Sixth Fleet'''<br />
the fleet of the U.S. Navy that patrols the Mediterranean

'''MiG25s'''<br />
Russian [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25 aircraft]

'''apoplectic'''<br />
Overcome with anger; extremely indignant, so much so that it could induce a stroke

'''"...only to be asked if his refrigerator's running..."'''<br />
Another ancient [http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070328212331AA34OVT&show=7 phone gag]:  Prankster: "Can you check to see if your refrigerator is running?"  Dupe (after a pause to check): "Yes, it is."  Prankster:  "Well, you'd better go catch it!"

'''Air Force One'''<br />
technically, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_force_one any United States Air Force aircraft] carrying the President of the U.S.

'''Abu Kenal'''<br />
probably meant to be the same as Abu Kemal referred to at 337

'''En Nebk'''<br />
a city in Syria, not far from Damascus

'''dip-mil'''<br />
diplomatic-military

'''sues for terms'''<br />
i.e., sues for peace

'''Tripoli'''<br />
a city in Lebanon; or the capital of Libya

'''Médenine Tunisia'''<br />
a city in the far south of Tunisia

'''Ostrava'''<br />
a city in the Czech Republic about 200 miles east of Prague

'''Howitzer'''<br />
a large piece of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howitzer artillery]

'''NSA'''<br />
National Security Agency

'''Tientsin'''<br />
alternate spelling of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tientsin Tianjin]

'''Air Force Two'''<br />
the designation of any aircraft carrying the Vice President of the United States

'''Provo UT'''<br />
a city about 45 miles south of Salt Lake City

==Page 327==

'''advertorial'''<br />
Normally this word denotes an advertisement written to appear as if it's journalism, but here Wallace seems to mean bearing an ad.

'''thanatoptic'''<br />
contemplating death

'''adepts'''<br />
expert players

'''Talmudic'''<br />
Normally referring to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud Talmud], here it means making fine distinctions.

'''pique'''<br />
resentment

'''''Commentary'''''<br />
A public affairs magazine that describes itself as [http://www.commentarymagazine.com/abouthistory.cfm the flagship of neoconservatism]. It was founded by the American Jewish Committee and is still known for its coverage of Jewish issues.

'''Beersheba'''<br />
a major city of Israel at the northern end of the Negev desert

==Page 328==

'''probity'''<br />
integrity or honesty

'''1300-m.<sup>2</sup>'''<br />
a bit over 1554 square yards

'''purloined'''<br />
stolen

'''subterranean'''<br />
literally underground

'''Peoria IL'''<br />
a city around 160 miles southwest of Chicago

'''topographic'''<br />
descriptive of the altitudes of the land on a map

'''Interstate 74'''<br />
This road runs from Davenport, Iowa, to Cincinnati

'''Minuteman'''<br />
a type of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minuteman_%28missile%29 missile]

'''''irregardless'''''<br />
not a real word, though a frequent usage mistake

'''2π'''<br />
used because we're dealing with circular and spherical areas of damage
: what looks weird to me is dividing by 1/surface: it is the same as simply multiplying by the surface.

==Page 329==

'''1,400,000 curies'''<br />
A curie (Ci) is a measure of radioactivity, defined as 3.7×10<sup>10</sup> decays per second. The more commonly used measurement in science is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Becquerel becquerel]. 1.4 million curies is equal to 59.2 million gigabecquerels.

'''microcephalic'''<br />
having a tiny head

'''Tenuate'''<br />
brand name of diethylpropion, a drug marketed as an appetite suppressant

'''left-eye-nystagmic'''<br />
Troeltsch's left eye is nystagmic. Nystagmus is an involuntary eye-movement characterised by the combination of a smooth pursuit, which usually acts to take the eye off the point of regard, interspersed with the saccadic movement that serves to bring the eye back on target.

'''cerebral'''<br />
oriented toward thinking

==Page 330==

'''Roentgens'''<br />
The roentgen (R) is a unit of measurement for ionizing radiation and uses the units charge divided by unit weight (C/kg). The preferred scientific unit is the gray (Gy), a unit of absorbed dose (of radiation).

'''Minsk'''<br />
the capital of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus Belarus]

'''extant'''<br />
still existing

'''Edina MN'''<br />
a suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul about 3 miles southwest

'''arational'''<br />
not irrational, but also not rational -- rather lacking the ability to tell one from the other

'''cod'''<br />
a type of fish

'''EMP'''<br />
electromagnetic pulse

==Page 331==

'''gander'''<br />
A gander, as used here, is a look or peek.

'''finski'''
undoubtedly a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_five-dollar_bill five-dollar bill], from its old nickname ''fin'' 

'''SJOG'''<br />
St. John of God

'''obtuse'''<br />
Annoyingly insensitive or slow to understand

'''Decision Tree'''<br />
a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_tree tool] used in decision analysis

'''Imam'd'''<br />
Here used as a verb for "to lead," an Imam is a Muslim cleric.

==Page 332==

'''strip-mining'''<br />
According to Wikipedia, "Strip mining is the practice of mining a seam of mineral by first removing a long strip of overlying soil and rock." The implication here seems to be simply that Ingersoll is picking rather deeply.

'''ad service box'''<br />
the box to serve into when an odd number of points have been played (so when one player or the other has the advantage, i.e. is ahead in points); as opposed to the "deuce service box" where one serves when an even number of points have been played (in particular when the game is tied at deuce).

'''n.b.'''<br />
Nota bene [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nota_bene Wikipedia]

'''parley'''<br />
to hold a discussion

'''Sierra Leone'''<br />
a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Leone country] of West Africa

'''Nunhagen'''<br />
a real brand of aspirin

==Page 333==

'''Karachi'''<br />
the largest city in Pakistan and capital of its Sindh province

'''verisimilitude'''<br />
proximity to reality, "Truth likeness"

'''eminence grise'''<br />
French for "gray eminence," this is a powerful adviser or decision-maker.

'''Miles Penn'''<br />
a combination of the names of two early British settlers of America: William Penn and Miles Standish (1584-1656), the military commander of Plymouth colony who traveled to Massachusetts on the ''Mayflower''.

''''It's snowing on the goddamn ''map,'' not the ''territory''...''''<br />
This is a reference to the statement "the map is not the territory," i.e., the thing representing some other thing is not that other thing in reality -- just a representation of it. Count Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski (1879-1950), the founder of [http://www.time-binding.org/ general semantics], coined the phrase. It's interesting that the term [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/map ''map''] appears so often in ''Infinite Jest'', as in reference to suicide (eliminating one's own map) or when one of anhedonia's symptoms is described thus: "The world becomes a map of the world." (p.693) Clearly Wallace is doing something with this general idea.

==Page 334==

'''contrite'''<br />
apologetic

'''rugby-scrum'''<br />
a way of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(rugby) restarting a game] of rugby after a point has been scored

'''Arabian Sea'''<br />
the part of the Indian into which the Persian Gulf (or Arabian Gulf) leads

'''metatheoretical'''<br />
regarding a theory devised to analyze a previous theory

'''El Greco'''<br />
El Greco (Spanish for "the Greek") was the byname of Doménicos Theotokópoulos (1541-1614), a Greek/Cretan-Spanish painter. Presumably a "bad" El Greco, i.e., a bad piece of art by El Greco, would have the characteristics Hal considers in Pemulis's face.

==Page 335==

'''paralytic thought-helix'''<br />
Paralytic would imply that this "thought-helix" stops everything else both physical and mental in Hal's actions/thoughts. A helix is a spiral, so a thought-helix is a thought-spiral, which goes on and on but never really gets anywhere.

'''1.3 m.'''<br />
about 4.25 feet

'''utility'''<br />
In economics or statistics, this is a quantity/quality to be maximized in decision making.

'''haunches'''<br />
the hips, buttocks, and upper thighs

'''cerebrate'''<br />
to think about something

==Page 336==

'''Toltec'''<br />
a catch-all term for the pre-Columbian cultures of what is now Mexico

'''Ivory Coast'''<br />
the English name for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_Coast Côte d'Ivoire]

'''Senegal'''<br />
another [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senegal nation] in west Africa

'''metadecision'''<br />
a decision about a previous decision

'''solander'''<br />
a case for maps or plates made to look like a book

==Page 337==

'''aggregate'''<br />
total, e.g., the aggregate IQ of the people in a room would be all their individual IQs added together

'''equivocationary'''<br />
not a real word; but of course equivocate means to deceive, so, perhaps "deceptive"?

'''Abu Kemal and Es Suweida'''<br />
Abu Kamal is in eastern Syria, near the Iraqi border. As-Suwayda is also in Syria, near its border with Jordan. This is to say that Ingersoll is patrolling Syria's eastern frontier.

'''Charleston'''<br />
This is the third mention of characters dancing or pretending to dance the Charleston, the others being Steeply at page 94 and the Vaught twins at page 218.

'''hoofer's cane'''<br />
the cane of a tap dancer (which is what a hoofer is)

'''de facto'''<br />
As opposed to ''de jure,'' which would mean legally, ''de facto'' implies a situation is true even if not legally true.

'''One True Faith'''<br />
Islam

'''vacillation'''<br />
inability to stick with a choice

==Page 338==

'''boat-wake'''<br />
water made to rise by the motion of a boat

'''compromise Eschaton's map'''<br />
which here would seem to mean that Lord may just kill Eschaton as a game

==Page 339==

'''something anatomically impossible'''<br />
i.e., to go fuck himself, or perform anal-cranial inversion

'''tripartite'''<br />
having three parts

'''thiamine'''<br />
another name for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiamine vitamin B<sub>1</sub>]

'''Nigeria and Chad'''<br />
bordering nations in North Africa, just south of the Sahara, Nigeria being the most populous African nation

==Page 340==

'''triangulating'''<br />
dividing into triangles
[More likely, homing in by successive approximation]

'''on point'''<br />
furthest up front, as in military formation

'''pincer movement'''<br />
a military maneuver whereby an enemy is attacked not from the front, but at both sides or flanks

==Page 341==

'''contact-bursts'''<br />
a type of nuclear strike (the nuclear device explodes when it contacts the target), discriminated from air-burst (the nuclear device explodes when it reaches a pre-programmed altitude above the target)

'''left cross'''<br />
According to a [http://ezinearticles.com/?Boxing-Techniques---The-Right-Cross&id=290419 boxing Web site], "the right cross is thrown in a straight line to the target and comes back in a straight line to the chin." The left cross is delivered with left hand.

'''accreting'''<br />
gathering increasing amounts

'''''doze'''''<br />
Todd is trying to say "nose." 

'''equivocation'''<br />
ambiguity

'''Asian subcontinent'''<br />
Better known as the Indian subcontinent, it includes  Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, & Sri Lanka.

==Page 342==

'''Indochina'''<br />
The colonial name for the continental portion of southeast Asia, camprising what is now Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, & (variably) peninsular Malaysia, & Singapore.

'''baseline'''<br />
the line at the end of a tennis court, parallel to the net, that marks the boundary of play

'''hasp'''<br />
a clasp for a door or lid

'''modem'''<br />
An acronym for modulation-demodulation, it is a data-transfer device.

'''chassis'''<br />
the construction forming the sides, top, and back of a piece of equipment

'''y-axis'''<br />
the vertical axis

{{Top}}
{{InfiniteJest PbP}}
Templates used on this page:
Return to Pages 321-342.
Retrieved from "https://infinitejest.wallacewiki.com/david-foster-wallace/index.php?title=Pages_321-342"
View source for Pages 321-342

Views

Personal tools

Navigation

pynchon wikis

Search

Tools
