Thomas Pynchon's V. (1963)
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.
B
Bad Priest
306; lives in an old villa past Sliema in Malta; children "assigned the Bad Priest no opposite number" 339; disassembly, 341-44; "girls he advised to become nuns [...] boys he told to find strength in--and be like--the rock of their island" 340; glass eye in the shape of a clock, 388; See also V.
Baedeker, Karl (1801-1859)
64; the first Baedeker guidebook was published in 1839; Baedeker land, 70, 71; 74; 78; 89; Visitor's Guide, 159; 190; distrust of "South" 229 ("soiled South" - 75); Karl Baedeker of Leipzig, 408; 475; pencil-sharpener salesman who had seen every territory in the country and could give you interesting information on any city," 35
Bakunin, Mikhail (1814-1876)
405; Russian anarchist who believed that communism, with its "withering away of the state," was an essential step toward anarchism
balloons
"on the fourth limb from the top there is a red balloon [golden-screwdriver dream]," 40; "a sturdy green balloon with a great Z printed on it [Fergus' way of indicating consciousness]" 56; "The sunburned face bobbed like a balloon," 65; "Up goes the balloon [slang: war, action, etc. had begun]," 67; Yusef's love of, 67; "A balloon-girl." 67; "Soon he was daydreaming again of balloons." 68; "So the balloon's gone up," 232; "the balloon had gone up", 308; "slow as a balloon," 329; "the most bouyant balloon-girl," 331; "fire-balloon," 335; "gay balloon-lungs," 343; V. "handed swords, balloons and colored handkerchiefs to Ugo Medichevole, a minor magician," 388; "The jolly, jolly balloon [...] Going up" 434; "leery like any Maltese of the Balloon's least bobbing," 448; 474; "Wasn't she the same balloon-girl who'd seduced him on a leather couch," 488; See also Cher Ballon; hothouse
Barkhausen, Heinrich Georg (1881-1956)
230; German physicist who taught at Technische Hochschule in Dresden; discovered sferics during WWI
Bartholomew
119; rat in Fairing's Parish
Basilisco
379; cop in Profane's old neighborhood
Basilisk, Maynard
419; "escapee from Devil's Island [...] on route to Vassa [...] to teach beekeeping" at party in Washington, DC
Batignolles, Le
401; where Porcépic lives
Battista (1901-1973)
353; Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar was president of Cuba 1940-44; 1952-59; he ruled as dictator until his overthrow by Fidel Castro in January 1959.
Bay of Biscay
388; bay in the Mediterranean between France and Spain
Beatrice
11; barmaid at Sailor's Grave; [Etymology]
Belinda Sue
130; subject of hillbilly tune; she ran off with an "itinerant propeller salesman"
Bella Gigogin, La
477; song sung by rollickers in the street in Valletta
Bellevue
362; psychiatric hospital in New York City; 364; 416
Ben-Gurion, David (1886-1973)
225; prime minister of Israel 1949-53, 1955-63
Benguela Current
266; brings wind and sand to harbor in Südwest; 274
Berg-Damaras
245; Südwest tribe; they were serfs of the Hottentots and Hereros and lived in the mountainous regions
Bergomask, Oley
217; of Anthroresearch Associates; 284
Beukes, Tim
232; Bondelswaartz leader in Südwest during uprising of 1922
bierhalle
88; north of the Ezbekiyeh Gardens in Cairo
Big One, The
226; "the century's master cabal"; See also paranoia
Bight of Benin
271; bay in Gulf of Guinea on west coast of Africa
Birth of Venus
178; Botticelli painting coveted by Mantissa; 209; 212; [IMAGE]
Bismarck, Otto (1815-1898)
239; first chancellor of the German Empire 1871-90
Bizerte
459; Tunisian port on the Mediterranean
Black Maria
31; Navy slang for paddy wagon
Black Mass
167; a sacrilegious mass in which the Devil, rather than God, is invoked, with various obscene rights; 394; 398; 401; 402; acolytes, 402; Host, 403; 413
bluejackets
16; Navy enlisted men
Board of Inquiry
191; looked into Godolphin/Vheissu matter; 197; 491
Bobbsey Twins, The
436; Dahoud and Leroy Tongue ("the midget storekeeper") in Valletta, as cops
BOC
Bodine, Pig
14; AWOL former shipmate of Profane's on USS Scaffold; voyeur, 17; looking for Paola, 129; 217; "The Green Door. One night Dolores, Veronica, Justine, Sharon, Cindy Lou, Geraldine and Irvine decide to hold an orgy." 218; wants Paola, 221; 283; Whole Sick Crew party, 287; 352; "life is the most precious possession you have." (see also p. 12), 361; attempted rape of Paola, 370; Pig also figures prominently in Gravity's Rainbow; Pig's ancestor, Fender-Belly Bodine, shows up in Mason & Dixon.
Boeblich
88; owner of bierhalle north of Ezbekiyeh Garden in Cairo
Bofors
309; British anti-aircraft (a/a) guns; 317; 328-29
Bondelschwaartz
231; aka "Bondel" - rebel Hottentots in Südwest - led by Abraham Christian, their chief; [MORE]
Bongo-Shaftsbury, Eric
55; Egyptologist and father of H. Stencil's acquaintance; acts as Wrens' guide in Alexandria and environs; murdered Porpentine (?) 93-94; "A certain Porpentine, one of his father's colleagues, had been murdered in Egypt under the duello by Eric Bongo-Shaftsbury, the father of the man who owned this apartment." 63; aka "Hugh" (?), 74; "He saw a flicker of communication between [Bongo Shaftsbury and Lepsius]" 75; "Odd: neither Porpentine nor Bongo-Shaftsbury spoke. Each had bent a close eye on his own man, keeping expressionless." 75; "An electro-mechanical doll," 80; "Humanity is something to destroy." 81
Bongo-Shaftsbury, Hugh
55; son of Eric; 74
Boone, Pat (b. 1934)
19; "white-bread" American popstar in 50s. Made tunes by rockers (often black artists) palatable to white audiences; Gene Vincent's "Be Bop A Lula" is an example; 418; 420
Bop Kings
144; street gang in New York City and rivals of the Playboys
BOQ
269; Bachelor Officers' Quarters; 305
Borgo
464; According to Baedeker, one of the Three Cities "Opposite Valletta, on the three central creeks of the Grand Harbour [...] also called Vittoriosa since the great Turkish siege"; [MAP]
Borgo di Greci
175; street in Florence
Borracho
202; member of Figli d'Machiavelli in Florence
Botticelli, Sandro (1444-1510)
201; Florentine painter; his The Birth of Venus is in the Uffizi in Florence; 212; See also Birth of Venus
Boulevard Haussmann
394; in Paris
Brad
58; frat on periphery of Whole Sick Crew with whom Esther flirts
Breguet
97; French reconnaisance plane built in 1914 and used in World War I
Brennessel cabaret
241; mentioned by Weissman to Mondaugen as being in Munich in Schwabing quarter
Brindisi
75; Italian port city where Lepsius has been before turning up in Cairo
Bristol Fighters
97; WWI British fighter plane
British Officers' Club (BOC)
431
Brody
128; a Brodie is a suicidal leap, named after Steve Brodie, an American newsboy who, in 1886, claimed to have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge; 436
Brunelleschi, Filippo (1377-1446)
201; Italian architect, goldsmith and sculptor. Main claim to fame is the dome of the Florence Cathedral (Duomo) erected between 1420 and 1461
Buffo, Beatrice
11; barmaid at Sailor's Grave
Bung
116; foreman of rat patrol in New York City sewers; 139
Butte
412; in Paris
