Difference between revisions of "Chapter 13"

Latest revision as of 12:39, 23 December 2022

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Midol
Brand name of a group of nonprescription drugs for relief of menstrual and premenstrual discomfort. Symptoms claimed to be alleviated include cramps, bloating, headaches, backaches, breast tenderness, fatigue, irritability and tension. It consists of a painkiller (acetaminophen), a diuretic (Pamabrom), and pyrilamine maleate (which seems to be both a painkiller and a diuretic). And it has some some caffeine too.

She stays till the flight is called
This is significant because after 9/11 (only a couple months away now), only ticketed passengers can go through security in an airport and wait by the gate.

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machinima
Fan-made videos that use video from video games as footage for the story.

My best to Siegfried and Roy.
A popular Vegas magic act until 2003 when Roy was bitten by a tiger.

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Bringing them to a standoff, ethnicity of your choice.
Plays on the idea of a Mexican standoff--a situation in which three armed people are all pointing guns at each other. Read more here.

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witchyiz
with you

Igor Dashkov
This fictional character appears to possibly be based on the real-life Yegor Lavroff. See here.

"Doom," Igor waving a thumb, "just came out for Game Boy..."
Or rather, Game Boy Advance. The line seems to be more a reflection of Igor's ignorance of games than Pynchon's, based on the latter's earlier displays of video game minutiae. Then again...

This reference presents something of an anachronism. The earliest official release of Doom for the Game Boy Advance was in October 2001, well after 9/11. If we assume Pynchon put this in intentionally, the versions they're playing could not be legitimate copies. But given the characterizations of Misha and Grisha, that isn't too hard to believe, especially if they're already a part of obscure internet subcultures like padonki. If they refer to themselves as in-game locations (Deimos and Phobos) and are willing to play Doom on a limited port of it like the Game Boy Advance, chances are they're big enough fans of the game to get copies of it illegally. Indeed, porting Doom to all types of video game consoles was a trend in the game's community, even after eight years since its initial release.

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padonki
(падонки) refers to a Russian Internet subculture that employs very Pynchonian cross-linguistic puns, intentional misspellings and bawdy humor. See Wiktionary. Seems a bit anachronistic to me, since widespread offline (or even online) usage of padonki slang had not appeared until 2004.

Marie of Roumania
Marie of Romania (Marie Alexandra Victoria, previously Princess Marie of Edinburgh; 29 October 1875 – 18 July 1938) was Queen consort of Romania from 1914 to 1927, as the wife of Ferdinand I of Romania. She was called Missy by her family.

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;

And I am Marie of Romania.

–Dorothy Parker, Not So Deep as a Well (1937), "Comment"

Deimos and Phobos
Mars has two known moons, Phobos and Deimos.

mi gratto la pancia
Italian for "I scratch my belly."

khuem grushi okolachivat
(хуём груши околачивать) Russian, literally means "knocking pears out of a pear tree with your dick." But it's used in Russian to refer to someone who's being lazy or messing around unproductively or (see Italian phrase above) scratching his belly.

Spetsnaz
Russian Special Forces. From WIKI.

HALO jump
High Altitude - Low Opening

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Bernie Madoff
Operated the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history. Arrested in 2008. Read more here.

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Detsl
Kirill Aleksandrovich Tolmatskiy (born July 22, 1983), better known by his stage name Detsl, is a Russian hip hop artist. He graduated in Switzerland and the British International School in Moscow. In 1999, Detsl made his debut in the Russian rap scene with the album Who Are You?. In 2001, he released his second album, "Street Fighter". Detsl is a pseudonym Kirill Tolmatskiy gained because of his small height. From WIKI.

Nothing is specifically rastafarian about Detsl apart from his dreadlocks. From my point of view, it's really weird choice of favorite music either for young thugs or for young hackers from Russia. But probably it's ok since Misha and Grisha are in large part parodic characters.

Here's the vid for "Party at Detsl's" which is mentioned by Misha and Grisha:

Yaponchik's circle
Vyacheslav Kirillovich Ivankov (January 2, 1940 - October 9, 2009) was a notorious member of the Russian Mafia who was believed to have connections with Russian state intelligence organizations and their organized crime partners. He has operated in both the Soviet Union and the United States. His nickname, "Yaponchik," translates from Russian as "Little Japanese," due to his faintly Asian facial features. From WIKI.

Something Happened
Joseph Heller's 2nd novel "Something Happened". Not much happens in Something Happened. From WIKI.

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Oxide Pang
The Pang Brothers are Danny Pang Phat and Oxide Pang Chun, twin-brother screenwriters and film directors, born in 1965 in Hong Kong. Among their films is the hit Asian horror film, The Eye, which has spawned two sequels, as well as a Hollywood remake and a Hindi remake. From WIKI.

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Chapter Eleven
Chapter 11 is a chapter of Title 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. From WIKI.

Think of me as the prophet of that
Reg predicts Youtube.