Difference between revisions of "Chapter 4"

Revision as of 13:09, 18 August 2009

Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.

Page numbers refer to editions with 369 pages, where the story begins on page 1. Not sure if there are other editions with variant pagination. Please let us know otherwise.

Page 50

Hughes Company property
Hughes Aircraft Company was a major aerospace and defense company founded by Howard Hughes. The group was based in Culver City, California. Wikipedia

Page 51

KQAS

In Vineland, while hassling dopers in Gordita Beach, Hector Zuniga's radio dial was always tuned to KQAS.

"I really want to tell you, man, about my car radio?" He moved closer to Mucho, who'd already read and filed Hector's story by now, and would presently begin to edge away. "Which is kin' of unique 'causs it only gits this one station? KQAS! Kick-Ass 460 on th' AM dial!

460 megahertz is the police band.

Ondas Nudosas
Spanish: "Gnarly Waves," Pynchon's hilarious (and also accurate) translation of surfer-speak for waves that are great to ride but challenging.

Page 52

Fritz Drybeam
How much do you want to bet that ol' Fritz has CIA connections?

Truth serum. Same kind the CIA uses
See: Pynchon's California Trilogy and the CIA

Dodge Super Bee

Page 53

ARPAnet
"It's a network of computers, Doc. all connected by phone lines. UCLA, Isla Vista, Stanford. Say there's a file they have up there and you don't, they'll send it right along at fifty thousand characters per second."

The ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) created by ARPA of the United States Department of Defense during the Cold War, was the world's first operational packet switching network, and the predecessor of the global Internet.Wikipedia

while writing Gravity's Rainbow Pynchon met with some of the super nerds from TRW and found out about "the Web."/CW/ [Can you cite a source for this? Or substantiate it somehow, CW?]

An interesting discussion about ARPAnet on pg. 195.

Page 54

ARPA
Now DARPA

Created as the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in February 1958. Its creation was directly attributed to the launching of Sputnik and to U.S. realization that the Soviet Union had developed the capacity to rapidly exploit military technology. Darpa Website

TRW
TRW Incorporated was an American corporation involved in a number of businesses, mostly defense-related, but including automotive, aerospace and credit reporting."Wikipedia

Ramo isn't telling Woolridge? [sic]
The 1958 merger of Thompson with the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation (named after Simon Ramo and Dean Wooldridge) was named Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc., then shortened to TRW Inc. in 1965.Wikipedia

The Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation's main business, from 1954, was acting as the principal technical advisor to the Air Force on the development of the US intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program. The technical foundation of that effort was, of course, the German V2 program, a principal focus of Gravity's Rainbow. Reference and another one.

Boeing was a contractor for the Minuteman missile system, part of the ICBM program. As a technical writer for Boeing, Pynchon's primary subject was Boeing missile work, including the Minuteman program. Reference

The Ramo and Wooldridge reference, at least for people with very long memories, may not be as obscure as it first appears. Link