Thomas Pynchon's Mason & Dixon (1997)
Read Professor Irwin Corey's acceptance speech for Pynchon's 1974 National Book Award for Gravity's Rainbow.
Also, have a look at Douglas Kløvedal Lannark's exhaustive documenting of "love" in Gravity's Rainbow.
T
T., Hervé du
372; [punning name]; "Gentleman-Detective"
Table Mountain
70; 82; Malay quarter, 82; 87;
Tagareen Man
243; From the Oxford English Dictionary: "the keeper of a marine store, esp. one who visits ships in dock or harbour with a boatful of wares for exchange"
Tailor of Gloucester's Mice
459; Tailor of Gloucester was published by Beatrix Potter in 1902. Exhausted and ill with fever, the tailor still hasn't finished making the beautiful silken coat for the Mayor's wedding on Christmas day. With the aid of mice, he is able to get the job done.
Tale of a Tub
430; Written by Jonathan Swift, published in 1704. [Complete text] Contains this interesting commentary on the author/reader relationship:
"Whatever reader desires to have a thorough comprehension of an author's thoughts cannot take a better method than by putting himself into the circumstances and postures of life that the author was in upon every important passage as it flowed from his pen; for this will introduce a parity and strict correspondence of ideas between the reader and the author. Now, to assist the diligent reader in so delicate an affair, as far as brevity will permit, I have recollected that the shrewdest pieces of this treatise were conceived in bed in a garret; at other times (for a reason best known to myself) I thought fit to sharpen my invention with hunger; and in general, the whole work was begun, continued, and ended under a long course of physic and a great want of money."
Tallihoe, Mr.
273; of Virginia
Tangent Enigma
321; 334; Tangent Point, 463; 467-68
Taylor, Reverend Dr. Brook (1685-1731)
British mathematician remembered for his contributions to the development of differential calculus; his Methodus incrementorum (1715) contains his theorem on power series expansions; a gifted artist, he set forth in Linear Perspective (1715) the basic principles of perspective; "On the Lawfulness of Eating Blood" 384; 721
Tenebrae
7; sister of the Twins; [Etymological Musings]
Tenerife
50; largest of the Canary Islands off the North African coast; 58;
Text
289; 293; 487; 497; 538; 560
Theodolite
572; surveyor's tool for measuring horizontal and vertical angles
They
Invisible Gamesters, 40; 71; 226; Invisible Hand, 411; "Mortality and its Agents" 511; 543; 558; 755; See also extraterrestrials
Thickley, Sheriff
432
thirteenth Guest
604; according to Norse mythology, at a banquet in Valhalla, Loki once intruded, making 13 guests, and Balder was slain; thus, the 13th guest is considered unlucky
Thomas
"Infancy Gospel" 486, 559 (these writings were associated with the Gnostic heresy of very early Christian Church) [MORE]; St. Thomas, Acta Thomae, 511
Thornton-le-Beans
232; a small village in N. Yorkshire near North Allerton about 15 miles south of Darlington and about 20 miles SSE of Hurworth, with neighbours Thornton-le-Moor and Thornton-le-Street.
Thorstein the Swarthy
634; The son of Eric the Red, and brother of Leif, Thorvald and Freydis (see Finnbogi). [The Medieval Sourcebook]
Threes
641
Thuggee
112; Hindu = "devotees of Kali", i.e., professional assassins who strangled their victims with silk ropes
Tiffany
699; daughter of slave-driver Dixon attacks
Tiger, The
242; one of Dixon's favoured pubs
Time
72; 121; 172; 192; 195; 209; 220; and Ben Franklin, 268, 271; 287-88; 296; Perpetual-Motion Watch, 317; 322; 326; and Philadelphians, 321; 344; 346; 378; and the Spark Mason witnesses, 433; 450; 505; 522; 555; Tempus Incognitus (Latin: "unknown time"), 556; "cruel flow of" 605; "worth of twenty minutes" 629; 630; 635; 637; 638; 647; 659; 673; 702; Purser of, 729; 746
Tissonier, Professor
389; taught bladesmanship to Dimdown in New York
"To Anacreon in Heaven"
262; Francis Scott Key took the melody to this trad. tune and wrote "The Star Spangl'd Banner"; [Lyrics & History]
Toby
767; "confederates upon the"
Tohu-Vabohu
767; "Tohu-Vabohu" is a transliteration of the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:2, where it says that in the beginning the earth was "without form [tohu] and void [vabohu]."
Toise
373; Ancient French unit of length: 1 toise = 1.949 meters; thus 1K toise/minute = 1,949 m/min. = 72.66 MPH
Toko
70; Asian Pygmy of Malay tribe Senoi; 70; 320
Tom Jones
117; novel by English novelist Henry Fielding, published in 1749
Too Late
207; 212; 237; 281; 303; 379; 436; 457; 560; 601; 656; 697; 737; "very late" 758; 762
Toque
368; A tall white hat with a full pouched crown, worn by chefs
Torah
487; Jewish term for the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) which contains the Mosaic Law; "a Tellurian Scripture"
Torpedo
235; a round-bodied short-tailed ray (family Torpedinidae) with a pair of electric organs; 600; Felípe, 426, 469
Tox, Timothy
It has been suggested by critic Elizabeth Hinds that Tox is based on the figure of Joel Barlow, author of the Vision of Columbus (later renamed the Columbiad). Barlow is a good fit character-wise: he was a Republican, pamphleteer, etc., and his poetry was in epic form; Pennsylvaniad, 217; The Line, 257; 310 339; 350; 380; 443; 470; about, 489; 600; 641; 684; 759; ; See also Pennsylvaniad
Transit of Venus
12; 192; 223; 225; discussed, 283; Wigs & Pudding, 283; 450; 718; [MORE]
trans-Provincial Congress
564
Transylvania
591; region of western Rumania; location of "one of the very last Crusades"
Treaty of Paris
See Paris, Treaty of
Trebuchet
590; a weapon used during the Middle Ages to hurl a dead cow, usually over castle walls
Trent
506; Coachman who's late picking up Lady Barnard
Tribe with No Name
663-64
Tripos
437; at Cambridge, the three honour classes in which candidates are grouped at the final examination, whether Mathematics, Law, Theology or Natural Science.
Tumbling
331; neighbor of Harlands
Turkey Company
252
Turkish Spy, The
600; Dracula (son of the Dragon) was killed by a Turkish Spy. [More]
Turpin, Dick (1706-39)
9; Famed highwayman, who was eventually caught and hanged
Tuscarora Chiefs
Iroquoian-speaking Indians of North America who occupied what is now North Carolina when first encountered by Europeans in the 17th century. They were noted for their use of Indian hemp for fibre and medicine; their name derives from an Iroquoian term for "hemp gatherers." Though expert hunters, they also depended heavily on cultivating corn (maize). Later they extended their economy by trading rum to neighbouring Indian groups. The typical Tuscarora dwelling at the time of first European contact was a round lodge of poles overlaid with bark. Evidence suggests that they were organized in exogamous clans, with the clans grouped into two moieties of the three tribes constituting the Tuscarora nation. [Ency Britanica Online]; 571; "sixth of the Sixth Nations"; 600
Tussah
169; strong, coarse silk made in India, or fabric made from same
Twitcher, Jemmy
367; aka Lord Sandwich
Tyburn
8; a village on the Tyburn, a tributary of the Thames, where criminals were publicly hung until 1783 when executions were moved to Newgate; Tree, 8; Friday's hanging, 15; [MORE]
Tyne
502; River in No. England, about 129 km (80 mi) long, flowing through Newcastle, eastward to the North Sea
