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Annotations
to Carpenter's Gothic Chapter 4 by Steven Moore except as [noted] |
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Carpenter's Gothic A. Gaddis’ Books CG: Carpenter’s Gothic. 1985. New York: Penguin, 1999. FHO: A Frolic of His Own. New York: Poseidon, 1994. JR: J R. 1975. New York: Penguin, 1993. R: The Recognitions. 1955. New York: Penguin, 1993. B. Gaddis’s Sources EB: Encyclopædia Britannica. 14th ed., 1929. ODQ: The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 1st ed., 6th impression (London: Oxford University Press, 1949). Gaddis owned this particular impression, given to him by Ormande de Kay in Paris in 1950. Plato: The Dialogues of Plato. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. New York: Random House, 1937. 2 vols. |
98.28]
read in the paper somebody put a rattlesnake in somebody’s mailbox: 99.18] the bowels of Christ: a phrase first used by Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century, and by the occasional preacher ever since. [Frank Lekens] 100.37]
Latin to Calvary: the
first two styles illustrated in Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary
under the word cross. 107.12]
Crécy: the
Battle of Crécy (1346); see 147.12 ff. below. 114.13]
wailing wall: the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a commemorative wall in Washington,
DC, designed by Maya Lin, with the names of Vietnam casualties
engraved on polished black stone. 115.17]
Drucker and his bag of ears: another
detail from Herr’s Dispatches (34). 118.16]
There’s much more stupidity than there is malice in the world: in
his Paris Review interview,
Gaddis says this is something his mother once told him (86). 121.23] ancient belief that all of the cattle in the world belong to them [...] stolen from them long ago: “Before it was forbidden by the colonial governments in the early 1900s, cattle raiding was a popular and useful warrior’s occupation. A cattle people who believe that all the cattle on earth belong to them, the Maasai would go on cattle raids to retrieve herds from other tribes, which they believe must have been taken from them long ago. […] In recent days cattle raiding is no longer a formal, colourful public display, but is instead pure theft. […] Because of their sacred love of cattle, however, the Maasai will always be enemies of any outsider, African or European, who keeps cattle,” (51) the author of the text, himself a former warrior, writes. (See also 121.20 and 84.4, where the face of the Masai reminds Paul of his crew chief.) [AZ] 121.26]
a good serviceable fiction: cf. this passage from a book
cited in The Recognitions, Hans Vaihinger's The Philosophy
of ‘As if’: A System of the Theoretical, Practical
and Religious Fictions of Mankind, trans. by C. K. Ogden,
(London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1924), p. 265: "It
is, therefore, only right and proper that to-day, according to
our "law of ideational shifts," this petrified dogma
[You must regard God as if, just as though, he were your
father and as if, just as though, he were present in the heavens
as a constant external observer of your actions] is very generally
becoming a living conscious fiction once again. Indeed many clergymen
(at least in Protestant countries, and not a few elsewhere),
when they utter this sentence with their lips, really imply the
deeper significance that is so easily lost in the abbreviated
form [the as if is shortened to and mistaken as the copula
is]. They realize what they are doing and are, in that sense,
making use of a permissable and serviceable religious fiction." [JS] 121.29]
the Piltdown fraud: Stephen
Jay Gould's "The Piltdown Conspiracy" appears in the
same August 1980 issue of Natural History cited above,
pp. 8-28 (66.20). See 181.13 ff. 126.26]
Geotimes, Journal of Geophysical Research, Science: 127.6]
the Gregory Rift: a
geological gash that runs from Israel to Mozambique. Geologists
believe its formation made the evolution of humankind possible. 127.12]
the Leakeys … Lake Rudolf: Louis
and Mary Leakey traveled through East Africa from the 1930s through
the 1960s, making numerous discoveries regarding the origins
of humankind which were published in several books on the subject.
Lake Rudolf is now known as Lake Turkana, in 127.21]
Continents Adrift: Continents
Adrift: Readings from “Scientific American” (San
Francisco: Freeman, 1972) is a collection of fourteen essays
on the behavior of the earth’s surface. 127.22]
Runciman’s History of the Crusades [...] where’s one and three: Steven
Runciman’s A History of
the Crusades, published in three volumes: The
First Crusade (1951), The
Kingdom of Jerusalem (1952), and The
Kingdom of Acre (1954). When I visited Gaddis in August 1984,
just as he was finishing CG, I
noticed he had vols. 2 and 3 (in the Pelican edition) on his
bookshelf. See 187.3 ff. 127.23]
Greek Tragedy: probably
H. D. F. Kitto’s Greek
Tragedy: A Literary Study (1939; 2nd ed., 1950;
3rd ed., 1961), a classic of the field. 127.23]
Travels in Arabia Deserta: Charles
M. Doughty (1843-1926), English explorer, travel writer, and
poet. His famous Travels (1888)
recounts his wanderings in North Africa, Syria, and especially
Arabia in an unusual style made up of archaisms and arabisms,
elevating the travelogue to a kind of metaphysical quest. It
was greatly admired by T. E. Lawrence, who wrote an introduction
for the 1921 edition. The book is cited also in R (43)
and J R (486). 127.24]
your man with the grasshoppers [...] Selected Poetry: The
Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, published
in 1938, contains “Wise Men in Their Bad Hours,” which McCandless
quotes from below and on p. 161. 129.25] the fool is more dangerous than the rogue [...] Anatole France: French writer (1844-1924); original source unknown, but Gaddis probably adapted it from Oretga y Gasset's Revolt of the Masses : "That is why Anatole France said that the fool is much worse than the knave, for the knave does take a rest sometimes, the fool never" (chap. 8). {Keith McMullen} 130.36]
COS: Chief
of Station (234.36). 132.8]
Pythian Mining: a
company from J R. 133.2] the New Stanley: a five star hotel in Nairobi, originally built in 1902, then called the Stanley. In 1958 most of the hotel structure was demolished. After rebuilding the hotel operated under the name the New Stanley only to revert to its old name in 1999. Ernest Hemingway was one famous guest. See also 137.19 and 234.33. [SM/AZ] 134.8]
Smackover ... Chemin-couvert: probably from H. L. Mencken’s
American Language (1919-23): “French place-names have suffered
almost as severely. Few persons would recognize Smackover, the
name of a small town in Arkansas, as French, and yet in its original
form it was Chemin Couvert.” [CL] 134.19]
Foolishness bound [...] drive it out: Pr.
22:15. 134.22]
And they shall take up serpents: Mark
16:18. 134.26]
the men of Sodom [...] buggery: Gen.
19:4-5. 134.27]
Deuteronomy [...] houses of the Sodomites: there’s
a reference to sodomites at Deut. 23:17, but McCandless is quoting
2 Kings 23:7. 134.28]
an abomination in Leviticus: Lev.
18:22. 134.29]
these vile affections in Saint Paul burning in their list to
one another: Rom.
1:26-27. 134.37]
Tennessee sixty years ago: John
T. Scopes was convicted in 1925 in a highly publicized trial
for teaching evolution in a high school in Tennessee in violation
of state law. 135.14]
Second Thessalonians [...] First Thessalonians, four, seventeen: Lester
is correct. 135.28]
Samuel [...] the morning light: 1
Sam. 25:22, 34. 135.29]
Isaiah [...] piss and eating: Isa.
36:12. 136.19]
Pan Koo …The sleeping giant [...] his fleas men and women: a
primeval giant in Chinese mythology (also spelled Panku, Pangu,
etc.); after dying in his sleep, his corpse gave shape to the
universe. 139.17]
to live deliberately: from
Thoreau’s Walden (“I
went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately”), quoted
by Wyatt/Stephen near the end of R (900).
(From Lester’s description, McCandless’s novel sounds like a
watered-down version of R.) 140.5]
I’d rather have bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy: a
witticism used by songwriter Tom Waits on a 1977 television show
that quickly became repeated elsewhere. [Mark Molnar] 142.29] I come to send peace on earth, I come not to send peace but a sword: Matthew 10:34. [Frank Lekens] 142.31]
Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and Mighty!: from
the first hymn in the Pilgrim
Hymnal (Boston: Pilgrim Press, 1935), words by Reginald Heber
(1827), music by John B. Dykes (1861). 142.33]
The Son of God [...] streams afar: Pilgrim
Hymnal #377, words by Reginald Heber (1827), music
by Henry S. Cutler. 143.25]
the Crito [...] wise or a fool: another
Platonic dialogue, concerning the validity of doing wrong to
defend oneself against a wrong (Socrates argues no); the passage
(paraphrased from the Benjamin Jowett translation) occurs at
44d (as the dialogues are traditionally cited). 144.30]
the three secrets of Fatima: during
an alleged appearance to three children in Portugal in 1917,
Mary emphasized the importance of (1) the practice of penance,
(2) the recitation of the Rosary, and (3) devotion to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary. 145.11]
Kinshasa: Congo
river port, part of the former Léopoldville, now capital and the largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
145.13]
wicked fleeing where no man pursueth: Pr.
28:1 (as Lester eventually explains). 146.3]
Helen Keller in the woods when the tree falls: the
old philosophical question about whether a falling tree makes
noise if no one is in the forest to hear it, complicated by the
famous deaf and blind woman’s presence. 147.9]
Methuselah lived nine hundred years: actually,
969 years according to Gen. 5:27. 147.12]
the battle of Cressy [...] the beginning of firepower: these
details are from EB’s
article on the battle (6:653, “Cressy” given as an alternate
spelling), which includes a map with arrows presumably similar
to Paul’s. The author of the article notes that the battle “established
England as a great military power, helped to ring the curfew
on the long day of cavalry supremacy, [and ] proved the value
of fire-power as represented in the long bow.” 150.23]
page 207 [...] that morning
of return: from
the 1969 Penguin edition of V. S. Naipaul’s novel The
Mimic Men (1967). 150.34]
Bach’s D Major Concerto: apparently
the D Major concerto for harpsichord and strings (BWV 1054). |
Carpenter's Gothic |