IJ321
From Literature Concordances
321* · Eschaton
Page 321
Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment
GAUDEAMUS IGITUR
Latin: Let Us Rejoice
Page 322
Eschaton
The name of the game is based on "eschatology," i.e., the end of the world.
frisson
a sudden sense of excitement
puerile
childish
Wilmington DE
a city 30 miles southwest of Philadelphia
Bunyan
John Bunyan (1628-1688) was an English-Calvinist preacher and writer. You can read Pilgrim's Progress here.
Luger
a German brand of handgun
AMNAT
American Nations
SOVWAR
The Soviet Union
REDCHI
The People's Republic of China
LIBSYR
Libya and Syria
IRLIBSYR
LIBSYR plus Iran
INDPAK
India and Pakistan
Page 323
Mean-Value Theorem for Integrals
Read all about it here.
Endnote 123
Extreme Value Theorem
This is explained here.
datums
The proper plural is "data."
ordnance
explosives
Page 323 (cont'd)
synoptic
by way of summary
Yahtzee
a popular parlor game played with dice
Endnote 124
Aapps Inc.
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
a three-pronged outlet
Dürer's 'The Magnificent Beast'
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) was a German painter and mathematician. You can see the work cited here.
bellicosity
a warlike disposition
Presque Isle ME
a city of Maine about 20 miles west of the border with New Brunswick, Canada
Chyonskrg Kurgistan
Assuming (a) the town is spelling correctly and (b) the country is Kyrgyzstan, I can't find this town on a directory of towns in Kyrgyzstan.
Pliscu Romania
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
Personal Computers
topspin
spin given to a ball in tennis causing it to rotate forward
profligate
recklessly extravagant
metastasizes
spreads like cancer
EM
electromagnetic
baroque
extravagantly ornate
quorum
the required minimum number of people required to carry forth a particular task
Page 325
DEFCON
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
here used as a military term for an area in which warfare is carried out
Endnote 125
dilettantes
people who (in this case) play tennis merely for amusement
Page 325 (cont'd)
Achilles' heel
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
enters the phase of using tactical nuclear weapons
Sinkiang
an alternate spelling for the Xinjiang province of China
Aleutians
an archipelago of Islands stretching west from the coast of Alaska toward (and over) the International Date Line
SS10s
a type of Soviet surface-to-surface (SS) missile
El Al
Israel's national airline
airbus
a short- or medium-range passenger aircraft
both H'sseins
Hussein I (1935-1999), king of Jordan, and Saddam Hussein (1937-2006), president of Iraq
Ft. Chimo
another name for Kuujjuaq, Québec, in the Arctic Circle
Labrador
the mainland part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland
Volgograd
Formerly known as Tsaritsyn and then Stalingrad, this is a city of Russia on the Volga River, downriver from Moscow.
Stolichnaya
a Russian brand of vodka
Endnote 126
picayune
small or trifling
TRISITs
triggering situations
Page 325 (cont'd)
F16s
American fighter jets
Cape Flattery Naval Base
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
a large city in Russian Siberia
Dzhugdzhur Range
a mountain range in far east Siberia
SOVWAR's bald and port-wine-stained premier
no doubt a reference to Gorbachev (see right)
Endnote 127
Wolf-spiders
a type of arachnid
Page 325 (cont'd)
Prince albert in a can
a really old, bad phone gag
Sakhalin
a Russian island in the Pacific Ocean
Page 326
Pourtsmouth OH
a town about 90 miles due south of Columbus, Ohio
four kilgrams
about 8.8 pounds
Sixth Fleet
the fleet of the U.S. Navy that patrols the Mediterranean
MiG25s
a Russian plane manufacturer
apoplectic
as if suffering from a stroke
"...only to be asked if his refrigerator's running..."
another ancient, terrible phone gag
Air Force One
the official personal plane of the President of the U.S.
Abu Kenal
apparently not a real place
En Nebk
a city in Syria, not far from Damascus
dip-mil
diplomatic-military
sues for terms
i.e., sues for peace
Tripoli
a city in Lebanon
Médenine Tunisia
a city in the far south of Tunisia
Ostrava
a city in the Czech Republic about 200 miles east of Prague
Howitzer
a large piece of artillery
NSA
National Security Agency
Tientsin
alternate spelling of Tianjin
Air Force Two
personal plane of the Vice President of the United States
Provo UT
a city about 45 miles south of Salt Lake City
Page 327
advertorial
Normally this word denotes an advertisement written to appear as if it's journalism. Its use here is cryptic.
thanatoptic
contemplating death
adepts
expert players
Talmudic
Normally referring to the Talmud, here it means making fine distinctions.
pique
resentment
Commmentary
the flagship publication of neoconservative Jews
Beersheba
a major of Israel at the northern end of the Negev desert
Page 328
probity
integrity or honesty
1300-m.2
a bit over 1554 square yards
purloined
stolen
subterranean
literally underground
Peoria IL
a city around 160 miles southwest of Chicago
topographic
descriptive of the altitudes of the land on a map
Interstate 74
This road runs from Davenport, Iowa, to Cincinnati
Minuteman
a type of missile
irregardless
not a real word, though a frequent usage mistake
2π
used because we're dealing with circular and spherical areas of damage
Page 329
1,400,000 curies
A curie (Ci) is a measure of radioactivity, defined as 3.7×1010 decays per second. The more commonly used measurement in science is the becquerel. 1.4 million curies is equal to 59.2 million gigabecquerels.
microcephalic
having a tiny head
cerebral
oriented toward thinking
Page 330
Roentgens
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
the capital of Belarus
extant
still existing
Edina MN
a suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul about 3 miles southwest
arational
not irrational, but also not rational -- rather lacking the ability to tell one from the other
cod
a type of fish
EMP
electromagnetic pulse
Page 331
gander
A gander, as used here, is a look or peek.
SJOG
St. John of God
obtuse
difficult to understand
Decision Tree
a tool used in decision analysis
Imam'd
Here used as a verb for "to lead," an Imam is a Muslim cleric.
Page 332
strip-mining
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
the part of the tennis court where the player with the advantage serves
n.b.
Nota bene
parley
to hold a discussion
Sierra Leone
a country of West Africa
Nunhagen
a real brand of aspirin
Page 333
Karachi
the largest city in Pakistan and capital of its Sindh province
verisimilitude
proximity to reality
eminence grise
French for "gray eminence," this is a powerful adviser or decision-maker.
Miles Penn
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.
'Its showing on the goddamn map, not the territory...'
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 general semantics, coined the phrase. It's interesting that the term "map" appears so often in Infinite Jest, as in reference to suicide (eliminating one's own map). Clearly Wallace is doing something with this general idea.
Page 334
contrite
apologetic
rugby-scrum
a way of restarting a game of rugby after a point has been scored
Arabian Sea
the part of the Indian into which the Persian Gulf (or Arabian Gulf) leads
metatheoretical
regarding a theory devised to analyze a previous theory
El Greco
El Greco (Spanish for "the Greek") was the byname of Doménicos Theotokópoulos (1541-1614), a Greek-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
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.
about 4.25 feet
utility
In economics or statistics, this is a quantity/quality to be maximized in decision making.
haunches
the hips, buttocks, and upper thighs
cerebrate
to think about something
Page 336
Toltec
a catch-all term for the pre-Columbian cultures of what is now Mexico
Ivory Coast
the English name for Côte d'Ivoire
Senegal
another nation in west Africa
metadecision
a decision about a previous decision
solander
a case for maps or plates made to look like a book
Page 337
aggregate
total, e.g., the aggregate IQ of the people in a room would be all their individual IQs added together
equivocationary
not a real word
Abu Kemal and Es Suweida
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.
hoofer's cane
the cane of a tap dancer (which is what a hoofer is)
de facto
As opposed to de jure, which would mean legally, de facto implies a situation is true even if not legally true.
One True Faith
Islam
vacillation
inability to stick with a choice
Page 338
boat-wake
water made to rise by the motion of a boat
compromise Eschaton's map
which here would seem to mean that Lord may just kill Eschaton as a game
Page 339
something anatomically impossible
i.e., to go fuck himself
tripartite
having three parts
thiamine
another name for vitamin B1
Nigeria and Chad
bordering nations in North Africa, just south of the Sahara
Page 340
triangulating
dividing into triangles
on point
furthest up front, as in military formation
pincer movement
a military maneuver whereby an enemy is attacked not from the front, but at both sides or flanks
Page 341
contact-bursts
a type of nuclear strike
left cross
According to a 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
gathering increasing amounts
doze
Todd is trying to say "nose."
equivocation
ambiguity
Asian subcontinent
Better known as the Indian subcontinent, it includes India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
Page 342
Indochina
The colonial name for what is now Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
baseline
the line at the end of a tennis court, parallel to the net, that marks the boundary of play
hasp
a clasp for a door or lid
modem
An acronym for modulation-demodulation, it is a data-transfer device.
chassis
the construction forming the sides, top, and back of a piece of equipment
y-axis
the vertical axis
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