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.
L
laager
267; Dutch: a temporary camp surrounded by wagons and impedimenta as a defense
Laferla steamer
444
Lake Mareotis
78; in northern Egypt near Alexandria, at the mouth of the Nile
Lamarck, Jean (1744-1829)
47; French naturalist and pre-Darwinian evolutionist
Lampedusa
462; small island about 110 miles southwest of Malta; "invisible circle centered at Xaghriet Mewwija with Lampedusa on the rim," 462; "Draw a line from Malta to Lampedusa. Call it a radius." 492
Land of the Axe
321; what Africa was called by early peoples
lanterloo
460; Oxford Universal Dictionary (1955 ed.): "the unmeaning refrain of a popular 17th c. song"; "lantur(e)lu" is French for "nonsense." Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary, 2d Ed.: an old card game in which the winner of each trick takes a portion of the pool, while losing players are obligated to contribute to the next pool. I suppose TRP means some sort of nonsense song, though he may be taking liberties with "lanterloo."
Lardwick-in-the-Fen
70; in Yorkshire, England. Town where MacBurgess is busted for sex with a minor; also where Victoria Wren lived
Lascaris Wharf
492; on Malta; Lascaris was a 17th Century Grand Master [MAP]
Last Day
84-85; "when the prophet Christ re-establishes el-Islam as the religion of the world"
la Ville-Lumière
401; French: "the City of Light" - aka Paris
Lazar
374; deck ape on USS Scaffold; 425; 428
League of Nations
235; A forerunner of the United Nations, the League was set up under a provision of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 to mediate disputes among nations; then-U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was the principal architect; he saw it as a "covenant of friendship" between the nations which would be "a guarantee of peace." Ironically, the US Senate refused the ratify the Treaty of Versailles and the U.S. Never joined the League; 243
League of the Red Sunrise
157; nihilist group at Dartmouth led by Evan Godolphin; 158
Left Bank
406; student/artist area south of the Seine in Paris (the left bank of a river is the bank on your left as you're facing downstream)
Le Havre
388; port in northern France established in 1517 as Le-Havre-de-Grâce ("harbor of grace")
Leman
430; "the red-headed water-king" in Valletta who "always looks for rocks"
L'Enlevement des Vierges Chinoises—Rape of the Chinese Virgins
396; ballet produced by Itague, choreographed by Satin and composed by Porcépic; premiered in 1913; performance, 412-14
Lenox
292; in Massachussetts, site of jazz festival; 298; 348; 350; song, 351; Secret Integration
Lepsius
69; German with blue eye-glasses; 75; "One can have enough [...] of this soiled South." 75; 78; 81; 82; "A jewel merchant who had lent money to the Mahdists" 84; "a salesman--said he--of ladies' jewelry" 88; lover of Hanne, 88-89; at opera in Ezbekiyeh Gardens, 93; Lepsius
Le Soleil
393; "the Orleanist morning paper" in 1913 Paris. The Orleanists were supporters of the Orleans family in its claim to the throne of France by descent from a younger brother of Louis XIV.
Leutwein, Major Theodor
255; Südwest administrator who took away Hereros' cattle and gave it to white settlers; He was replaced by von Trotha in 1904; [MORE]
Levantine
68; the Levant (p 184) is the region of the eastern shore of the
l'Heuremaudit, Mélanie
393; (French: "time of the damned"; "cursed hour"); 15-year-old dancer in Paris; in V.'s apartment, 406; shorn, 407; "V. needed her fetish, Mélanie a mirror," 410; impaled, 413-14
Libre Parole, La
399; French: "The Free Speech"
Liebigstrasse
243; street in Munich where Mondaugen had an attic room in a mansarde
Liguria
443; region of northwest Italy, on the Ligurian Sea
Liguorian tracts
354; works by Aulus Persius Flaccus (AD 34-62), aka "The Ligurian Sage"
Limey
132; British sailor or, more generally, a British person; 430; 439
Lindequist
267; conservative who succeeded von Trotha as governor in Südwest in 1905
Ling
131; "vagrant minstrel " in Fu's Chinese joke
L'Isle-Adam, Philippe Villiers de (d.1534)
310; a member of one of the noblest families of France, he became the first Maltese Grand Master, from 1530-34
Lochinvar
70; the hero of a ballad in Scott's Mfarmion, who boldly rides off with his sweetheart just as she is about to be married to another.
Lothario
255; a character from Rowe's tragedy The Fair Penitent (1703) who was a gay (carefree) libertine, seducer of women and debauchee.
Lot
78; was warned by an angel of God's destruction of Sodom and escaped
Lotte
89; works at bierhalle
L'Ouganda
398; French: "Uganda" [the source of the White Nile is in Uganda]; cabaret in Paris where Itague hangs out; 405; 408;
loup-garou
254; French: "werewolf"
Lowenstein, Margravine di Chiave
53; friend of Stencil's who lives in a villa on the west coast of Majorca (island in the Mediterranean) in 1946 [The title "Margravine" means "the wife of a margrave," a margrave being a member of the German nobility corresponding in rank to a British marquess]; 62
Lucifer
See Devil
Lucille (b. 1942)
139; girl Profane hangs with; named, 142
Lucky Pierre Runs Amok
219; one of Pig's porno radio productions while with Task Force 60 in the Mediterranean
Lüderitzbucht
267; barren islets off of it were natural concentration camps; Lüderitz Bay is located on the southern end of Südwest; 273; [MAP]
Ludgate Circus
184; in London; Fleet Street lies across it.
Luftwaffe
340; German airforce
Lungarno
162; Italian: "along the Arno"; the streets that run along the Arno river in Florence; 212
L'Univers
70; cafe in Alexandria
Luxor
74; city on the Nile in southern Egypt
Lych, Captain C. Osric
373; commander of USS Scaffold, with his inner circle of habitual offenders; 426; 431; See also Prisoners-at Large and Restricted Men's Club
Lyon, the blond seamstress of
160; former lover of Sr. Mantissa; addicted to absinthe and acquaintance of H. Godolphin, 209
