Latest revision as of 09:50, 29 March 2020

Editors: Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel. And please pay attention to formatting and grammar. Preview your changes before saving them. Thanks!

Steeply/Bain Correspondence

Page 664

V.D.
Very dearly

Endnote 269

Endnote 269 · Actual Steeply-Bain Correspondence

The Tunnel Club's cleaning duty

Page 666

ferrous
containing iron

morphic
probably short for "metamorphic," a type of rock

ovoid
egg-shaped

ambulatory
able to walk

26 meters
about 85.3 feet

B.P.
battery-powered

parget
plaster used for covering walls

remanded
placed into custody

dendriurethane
a branching organic compound (carbamate), probably rubbery or at least flexible for construction purposes

Page 667

novitiate
in the beginning period of something

dross
rubbish

Trojan
a brand of condoms

vermiform
looking like a worm

Habitant
a French Canadian brand of pea soup

fridgelettes
small refrigerators ("dorm-sized" in the sense of small enough to fit in a dormitory room, not the size of a dorm)

raison d'être
French: reason for being

recapitulating
summarizing

Page 668

Robert's Rules
Robert's Rules of Order, a text widely used throughout the United States as a standard for deliberative assemblies

Page 669

P.B.
perhaps "pulsed beam" or maybe just an inadvertent transposition of B.P. in reference to the same lights mentioned on p. 666

radial nerve
a nerve running from above the shoulder (in the neck) down the length of the arm

parfait
a tall glass filled with ice cream

electrostatic
giving off erratic static electricity

Tallat-Kelpsa
also the name of a Latvian classical composer

Page 670

pules
whimpers

Lucite
A brand name of polymethyl methacrylate, a kind of safety glass similar to polycarbonate.

burg
city/town

Page 671

malefic
producing evil

Orkin
a nationwide chain of exterminators

latency
i.e., sexual latency, the period Freud posited during which male sexuality is dormant

Page 672

quorum
the minimal number of people required to be present, usually within an organization (in this case, The Tunnel Club), for an official piece of business to occur

Page 673

The Bible
The quote isn't from the Bible.

'What're maggots?'
They're fly larvae.

Hal plays Stice, cont.

Page 673

Collyrium
Collyrium itself is not a brand name; it's the generic name.

putative
supposed

Page 674

rictal
showing the expanse of an open mouth

Donnay
a brand of tennis racquet

akimbo
with hands on hips

quandariacal
not a real word (a forced adjective from "quandary")

Page 675

'Veux que nous nous parlons français? Serait plus facile, ça?'
French: Do you want to speak in French? Would that be easier?

Lenglen, Rosewall
Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen (1899-1938) was a French tennis player who won thirty-one Grand Slams. Kenneth Robert ("Ken") Rosewall (born 1934) was an Australian tennis player with three Grand Slam wins.

'In A.D. 1887 a fifteen-year-old-girl won Wimbledon...'
This is Lottie Dod (1871-1960), who won another four Wimbledon championships.

Evert
Christine Marie Evert (born 1954) was a former American tennis player with eighteen grand slam wins.

Austin, Jaeger, Graff, Sawamatsu
Tracy Ann Austin Holt (born 1962) was an American tennis player who won Wimbledon in 1979 and 1981. Andrea Jaeger (born 1965) was an American tennis player who is now an Anglican nun. Stefanie Maria Graf (born 1969) is a German former tennis player with twenty-one Grand slam titles. Naoko Sawamatsu (born 1973) was a Japanese tennis player who retired in 1988

Wilander
Mats Wilander (born 1964) was a Swedish tennis player with seven Grand Slam titles.

Treffer, Medvedev, Esconja
Only Andriy Medvedev (born 1974), the Ukrainian player who won the French Open in 1991, is a real person, apparently.

Becker
Boris Franz Becker (born 1967) was a German tennis player with six Grand Slam titles.

Kleckner
not a real player

senza errori
Italian: without errors

Page 676

Endnote 274

Falls Church VA
a city about ten miles west of Washington, D.C. Also very close to Langley, VA (home of the CIA).

Clipper
A clipper in electronics is a way of sort of metering how much electricity, power, data, etc., goes through a circuit. Here its usage would seem more to indicate a computer hacker.

More probably a Clipper chip, an encryption device that "secured" telecom lines while providing a backdoor (a way to listen in) to the NSA.

Page 676 (cont'd)

ephebic
relating to a stage of life commonly known as young adult; no longer a teenager but not quite an adult

Arias and Krickstein
James ("Jimmy") Arias (born 1964) was a former American pro tennis player. Aaron Krickstein (born 1967) is also a former American tennis player.

Treffert
apparently not a real player

Capriati
Jennifer Marie Capriati (born 1976) was an American pro tennis player, winning three Grand Slam titles.

well-known tragedy
By the time Infinite Jest had been published, Capriati had been arrested for marijuana possession. She returned to pro tennis that same year, perhaps after the book went to press.

Pat Cash
Patrick Hart "Pat" Cash (born 1965) was an Australian pro tennis player, winning Wimbledon in 1987.

ephebe
Usually an adolescent male, although sometimes a term for an adolescent of any sex, as here. (Derived from a Greek graduation tradition)

aux disques
French: on disks, here probably referring to TP disks

Page 677

Oven-toughened
metal and glass can be strengthened though a process known as tempering (cycles of extreme heating and cooling that alter the chemical structure of the material)

Page 678

Augustus
Caesar Augustus, first emperor of Rome

Bud
short for Budweiser, a brand name of beer

half-meter
1.64 feet

apparition
a ghost, but here referring to Mario

Page 679

salaam
Arabic for "peace," here meaning a deep bow

intersticial
misspelling of "interstitial"

ideogram
a written note or character that symbolizes an idea without indicating the sounds used to say it.

Page 680

Japonois
French: a misspelling of japonais, meaning Japanese

Page 681

raglan
having sleeves that go in one piece to the neckline

Page 682

November 14th, YDAU - Matty Pemulis, some family background

Page 682

Page 683

calamari
Italian-style squid

Louth in Lenster
Louth is about 50 miles north-northwest of Dublin. Leinster (note spelling) is one of the four traditional provinces of Ireland, the others being Connaught, Ulster, and Munster. There are not officially used as Ulster is divided between the Republic of Ireland and the U.K. since 1922.

hauteur
arrogance

Page 684

mien
appearance

A fook in t'boom
"a fuck in the bum" with an Irish brogue

malt liquor
a high-alcohol-content variety of beer

largesse
genorosity of spirit or attitude

sone
i.e., son

a.
A word ("queer" or "faggot" perhaps) is being deleted by Matty in his remembrance

Page 685

"...rosebud, his dark star..."
his anus

russet
yellowish- or reddish-brown