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 "Controversial," said Ed.

* * * * * * * * * *

Ed doesn't take Merle's question as sarcastic but that's not absolute proof that Merle wasn't being sarcastic! Ed Addle, and many of the other light enthusiasts, could very well be autistic.

"Controversial"
Maybe this exchange is supposed to be humorous. Because Ed is all, "Something akin to temperature can be measured inside the Æther, based on how a bunch of tiny tornados interact but figuring out the density of the water vapor inside the Æther? That's something not everybody seems to buy into."

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 Merle came back with another round of beers. "How about humidity?"

* * * * * * * * * *

"Merle Rideout"
Okay! We're back with the main character and how he came to be in Cleveland.

"How about humidity?"
This sounds sarcastic, as if Merle realizes Ed's preoccupation with all the variables related to Æther don't really matter. But it also could be Merle being earnest. It's hard to tell because text doesn't express tone and they're also drinking in a bar. Merle could be busting Ed's balls here. How can all these date points be measured in the Æther, being that it's a theoretical substance to help explain how a wave could be propelled through a vacuum?

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 "Yes it's all here," said Ed Addle, one of the regulars at the Oil Well Saloon, "Æther-wind speed, Ætheric pressure, there are instruments to measure those, even an analogy to temperature, which depends on the ultramicroscopic vortices and how energetically they interact. . . ."

* * * * * * * * * *

"Ed Addle"
A new character! Another Ætherist and light addict. "Addle" suggests that he might not be the most scientific person in the saloon to contemplate the nature of light. Also suggestive of his confusion on the nature of light: his list of tools that measure the properties of Æther so as to make the study of light more accurate.

"Oil Well Saloon"
A saloon where light enthusiasts hang out. Reminiscent of "All's well." Oil can be used to fuel fire which produces light. An oil well a place where one finds the oil. So, in a sense, this saloon is a place where one can go to discover illumination, or knowledge.

"Ætheric pressure . . . ."
Just a bunch of mumbo jumbo that Michelson and Morley will make obsolete in the coming days with their experiment. At least for those scientists who haven't invested heavily in the Æther theory of light and so cannot easily adjust to or believe in the results of this experiment. Most scientists, I imagine, were just waiting to be able to jettison all of this Æther crap as just a bunch of pretzel logic to explain unproven theories.

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 Some spent most of their time at telegraph offices squinting at long scrolls of mysteriously arrived "weather reports," about weather not in the atmosphere but in the luminiferous Æther.

* * * * * * * * * *

"Some"
The light addicts who must learn everything they possibly can about this amazing thing that has always existed and has always been fascinating and has sparked such intense interest in figuring out exactly what it is, why it is, and how it works. The late 19th Century was the beginning of widespread use of electricity outside of the laboratory, with the Chicago World's Fair being a spectacular display of what cities could become by harnessing the power of electricity and light. It was cutting edge science, mesmerizing these light nerds who needed to read every new report on any light phenomena across the skies.

"luminiferous Æther"
Æther has yet to be completely debunked as the transmitter of light through space and time. Even when it will be debunked, we'll all still use the phrase because it's poetic. People like poetic phrases even if they know, literally, what they're saying isn't true. Like when Einstein says that God doesn't play dice with the universe. He doesn't mean an actual God throwing bones. He just means universal law isn't a bunch of random number generators. Sure, everything is chaos. But it's orderly chaos!

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 There were light addicts who around sunset began to sweat and itch and seclude themselves in toilets with portable electric lanterns.

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"light addicts"
Wait. I've never thought about this before but am I . . . addicted to light? I'm not even sure I could give it up any time I want! It's completely taken control of me. Perhaps these folks aren't addicted to light. Maybe they're just like rabid fandoms on the Internet where people can't just love something but have to express how much they love that thing more than the next person. The Internet has broken these kinds of people because before the Internet, they just had to love Disney more than a few of their friends on the same block to be thought of as the biggest Disney fan ever. But on the Internet, they suddenly have to be a bigger fan of Disney than every other biggest fan of Disney in the entire world and who has time to prove that much love for Disney? Well, apparently a lot of people because some Disney fans don't have any room for any other aspect of their personality. That's what I like to think these light addicts are actually about.

"who around sunset began to sweat and itch and seclude themselves in toilets with portable electric lanterns"
I think maybe they're just afraid of the dark!

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 There were diet faddists who styled themselves Lightarians, living on nothing but light, even setting up labs they thought of as kitchens and concocting meals from light recipes, fried light, fricaseed light, light á la mode, calling for different types of lamp filament and colors of glass envelope, the Edison lamp being brand new in those days but certainly not the only design under study.

**********

"Lightarians"
Being that I was raised on In Search Of and, later, the Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown series (not to mention dozens and dozens of pulp paperback books about myths, legends, paranormal activity, Oak Island pirate treasures, and more), I figured the whole "Breatharianism" movement was something that sprang out of the '60s and '70s New Age need to find a better  (meaning, at the time, more simple and natural) way to live. Pynchon's "Lightarians" aren't exactly the same thing as "Breatharians" but are definitely an offshoot of the same drive. Here's a bit from the Wikipedia entry on "Inedia" which closely links the two movements:

The 1670 Rosicrucian text Comte de Gabalis attributed the practice to the physician and occultist Paracelsus (1493–1541) who was described as having lived "several years by taking only one-half scrupule of Solar Quintessence". In this book, it is also stated that "Paracelsus affirms that He has seen many of the Sages fast twenty years without eating anything whatsoever."

I don't know exactly what a "Solar Quintessence" might be but sounds to me like he was eating light!

"light á la mode"
Being that these faddists are only eating light, I'm guessing this recipe wasn't a plate of ice cream sitting next to a candle and actually meant to be "eating light in the popular style." I don't know what that was in 1887. Maybe the bit following ("calling for different types of lamp filament . . .") was a direct continuation of the "á la mode" bit, meaning the "popular style" meant eating light from trendy lamps and current colors in style.

"Edison lamp"

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 Groups of these could be observed in Monumental Park at sunrise, sitting in the dew in uncomfortable positions, their lips moving inaudibly.

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"Monumental Park"
A park in Cleveland. Originally named Public Square as it was meant to be the village green center of the planned city, it became known as Monumental Park after a statue of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry was erected in celebration of his ability to destroy other ships and human lives before his was destroyed in the Battle of Lake Erie. It was also the place, in 1879, where the one of the first electric street lights was demonstrated. Pynchon always knows how to make his barely referenced references matter!

Pynchon gives us a portrayal of a certain set of "science enthusiasts" who have venerated the science of light to such a degree that they have now become sun worshipers engaging in morning prayer to the rising sun. He also points out how devotees love to sit in awkward positions. Perhaps this quick glimpse is meant as a warning to taking things too far, a warning ignored seeing as how this detailed inspection of light would eventually lead to the atomic bomb. Okay, maybe there isn't a direct link from sitting in the grass worshiping nature. But the fanaticism displayed here certainly is!