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p. 409 "Had he chosen something else... they all might have saved themselves": Pökler's life is a succession of missed chances to act -- always he chooses passivity.

p. 410 "I'd fit inside, wouldn't I?": to me, Ilse's question creates a sardonic bridge between the dream (Franz's: that we will use rockets for celestial navigation) and the nightmare (Gottfried and Blicero).

p. 410 "Maskelyne B": always nice to catch an intertextual reference.

p. 411 "Atlantes": this word is the plural of Atlas, not the book but the god who holds up the world; its meaning in architecture is statues of men used (in place of columns) to support an entablature.

p. 412 "a bus driven by a maniac bent on suicide": might the opening sequence of Salman Rushdie's (excellent) Haroun and the Sea of Stories have been a reference to this very passage?

p. 412 "'I lost my heart in Heidelberg,' well I have a friend who lost both his *ears* here!": ?? ?? (a.) No, I don't know that song. (Though I've heard a similar sentiment expressed wrt San Francisco.) (b.) Did someone have his/her ears cut off in Heidelberg?

p. 413 "Once, only once...": where does this Rilke quote come from? and what is its context?

p. 415 "1. It is a combination." usw: The only philosopher I've read [using the term rather broadly] that had his sentences numbered like this, was Spinoza. Is this some kinda Spinoza reference, or what?

p. 415 "'The new planet Pluto,' she had whispered...": I'm pretty confused by this parenthesis. It's Leni talking, I got that; what's she saying? Can any of you astrology buffs help me out here?

p. 416 A nice use of the word "maxima" -- the word I would have expected to see here is, probably, "extremes". Is Pökler "smil[ing] up more than he had in the year previous" as a way of kissing up, or because he's happy at being able to speak to his Svengali again? The word "intimacy", in italics, used to describe Weissman asking Pökler a technical question... I think I understand this. It is W's way of stroking P, letting him know he is forgiven his rebellious behavior; am I missing anything here?

p. 416 "It came to Pökler that the man didn't give a damn about heating problems.": P understands that this is purely formal ceremony, the recitation of a catechism.

p. 417 "Why didn't you look closer last time, Pökler?": 2 things -- This starts us wondering (for those of us dense enough not already to have been wondering) whether even the first Ilse was actual; and Pökler is reproaching himself, I think, for being too withdrawn from contact with other people; I see him making this self-reproach repeatedly.

p. 417 "as he threw chessboard and pieces all into Weissman's arrogantly blinking face...": (again, feeling kinda dense) Is there a chessboard in W's office? or is this a continuation of the "game" metaphor in the middle of p. 416?

p. 418 "The child had suddenly come into his arms": W-wait, is this after the fight with Weissman we were just reading about? is it before? Did the fight take place in P's imagination?

p. 420 "Papi, may I sleep next to you tonight?": This is probably not knowable within the confines of the text or important, but was the Ilse stand-in instructed by W to seduce P? -- P certainly thinks so, based on the line, "He hadn't known he was so vital to the program."

p. 421 Escape to Denmark: this seems like a kind of cute tease directed toward the reader.