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Ian "Marvin" Graye's Reviews > Against the Day
Against the Day
by
by
Ian "Marvin" Graye's review
bookshelves: exert-yourself, pynchon, marx-bros-and-karl, reviews-5-stars, reviews, read-2015
Feb 23, 2011
bookshelves: exert-yourself, pynchon, marx-bros-and-karl, reviews-5-stars, reviews, read-2015
PYNCHON IS THE UTOPIUM OF THE MATH CLASSES:
A Rhapsody of Exquisitely Mindful Pleasures
"Nobody ever said a day has to be juggled into any kind of sense at day's end."
[Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"]
Most authors inadvertently encourage us to be lazy readers. They make it too easy to read their fiction. We expect authors to comply with conventions of story-telling, a manageable number of characters, a narrative arc, a sense of relevance and progress towards a conclusion, a climax, a goal, a realisation and/or an understanding.
Pynchon doesn't necessarily write this way. He takes us to a world that might look like ours, but it is potentially alien (or at least foreign), in that there are some things or a lot of things that we do not know or understand about it.
"I'll tell you a story someday. Maybe."
[Thomas Pynchon, "Against the Day"]
What we see and experience at first might look familiar, superficially, but ours is the experience of a tourist, a stranger in a strange land or a space traveler landing on a distant moon or planet.
We have to construct knowledge, meaning and understanding, bit by bit, like a spy, a sleuth or a detective.
"...a crime, often of the gravest sort, committed in a detective story, may often be only a pretext for the posing and solution of some narrative puzzle..."
[Thomas Pynchon, "Against the Day"]
Pynchon doesn't just present his fictional world to us in easily digested mouthfuls. Whether or not his novels are difficult, they require mastication, exertion. We have to work on them. We have to do our bit. Having bitten off, we must chew.
This is their challenge, but even more importantly this is our reward. Pynchon offers us not mindless pleasures (an early working title for "Gravity's Rainbow"), but exquisitely mindful pleasures.
"'Oh, you're overthinking it all,' Yashmeen said, 'as usual.'"
[Thomas Pynchon, "Against the Day"]
That said, what would a Pynchon novel be if you didn't endeavour to think (or overthink) it through?
Are we meant to settle for studied incomprehension?
"NOW SINGLE UP ALL LINES!"
The first line of the novel is a nautical term that relates to the preparation of a ship (or in this case, an airship) to leave its mooring and depart (or take off).
Several sets of double ropes would normally secure the ship in its place. This command reduces the mooring to one rope in each position. It’s a halfway step.
Just as it releases the ship, it releases the lines themselves: once freed of their burden, the lines can now float free. They might also represent the verbal lines of the book, which are then commanded to cast off “cheerly now... handsomely... very well,� a perfect description of what Pynchon proceeds to do throughout the novel. He writes comically, eloquently and effectively.
"It's Always Night, or We Wouldn't Need Light"
The epigraph is attributed to Thelonious Monk in a Time Magazine profile published in 1964. While it might have been an expression that Monk used frequently, it could be a misquotation of another expression attributed to Monk by the saxophonist Steve Lacy in 1960:
"It must be always night, otherwise they wouldn't need the lights."
The two expressions have slightly different connotations. The first implies that the darkness of the night requires the enlightenment of the day or lighting. However, the second, in the context of jazz musicians playing at night in clubs, implies that the dimly lit darkness is a precondition for their music, their creativity, spontaneity and improvisation.
The darkness is not a negative quality that needs to be alleviated by the light. It’s a positive that allows individuals to perform at their best.
"Against the Day"
This construction, if it’s credible, hints at the meaning of the title "against the day".
In the novel, which is set between the 1890’s and the early 1920’s (the era in which Modernism began), it’s the light of day that is the negative. It symbolises the work of the Devil, the obviousness and conformity of the crowd, and its scrutiny by the powers that be (whether governments or employers).
Pynchon’s sympathy is very much with non-conformists, anarchists and socialists who are battling against capitalism and imperialism (or different manifestations of civilisation promoted by Great Britain, Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Tsarist Russia and Turkey), often with the only tools available to them: strikes, protests, assassinations, bombings and terrorism.
The latter are the underground (the counterculture), the former the overground (the over the counter culture).
Above them all are the Chums of Chance, "a five-lad crew" (plus their dog, Pugnax, who enjoys reading Henry James� “The Princess Casamassima�, also a novel about radical politics featuring a terrorist assassination plot) who float above the world in their airship (“the Inconvenience�), privileged to have a map-like perspective or birdseye view of the clashes of civilisations occurring on the surface.
By befriending chance, they too oppose (law and) order, and embrace the chaos of unrestrained freedom, free as birds (although as Bob Dylan would later ask in "Ballad In Plain D", "are birds free from the chains of the skyway?")
Servants of Greed and Force
Underlying the clash of civilisations is a (daylit) certainty that I (the sovereign Subject) am right and you (the Other object which is the subject of sovereignty) are wrong.
Pynchon questions certitude and power from both mathematical and metaphysical perspectives.
The maths might deter some readers who would otherwise thoroughly enjoy the novel. However, in truth, it's not necessary to study up on it, unless you're particularly inclined to do so. It's primarily contextual, and there is enough explanation in the novel itself to get Pynchon's drift.
The maths is largely dispensed with in the first third to half of the novel. I tried to keep up, but still found myself doing some online research to determine how much I was missing out on. However, once I felt that I had some basic layman's understanding of the issues, I was content to focus on the pleasures of the text.
This mightn't be much comfort to a sceptical or impatient reader, but I found that it was a lot easier to read, comprehend and enjoy the novel after the first 490 pages or so!
The Fork in the Silk Road
The maths helps to understand the concept of doubling or coupling that is fundamental to the book.
Neither concept is far removed from Nabokov's employment of doubles in "Lolita". It's a literary or cultural device, in this case, one built on a mathematical or scientific foundation.
If we start with a ray of light passing through a prism (such as Iceland spar), it's possible that the ray might be refracted into two sets of waves or particles. Thus, the thing that was once singular might now be separate or double. If there is a symmetry between the refracted light, one wave might be the opposite or inverse of the other.
Thus, we have the potential for both "bi-location" and "algebraic coupling".
However, what is separate or inverted can potentially be joined or reverted.
Pynchon jokes that the German word "und" when refracted and inverted might become the English word "pun". Thus, yet again (after "Mason & Dixon"), a conjunction is both significant and comical.
Metaphysically, what was once one, but is now two, might either engage in a life and death struggle, or seek to be re-united.
Thus, the double can either encounter itself in duplicity or oneness.
This is equally applicable to nations and people.
Dive-Bombing into the Day
From a national perspective, duplicity can result in war, unless resolved by treaty or entente.
There's much conflict between civilisations and nations in the novel. This aspect reminded me of Lawrence Durrell's works "White Eagles Over Serbia" and "The Alexandria Quartet", just as much as boys' own adventure stories from the days of the British Empire (subsequently reprised in the likes of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and steam-punk).
Pynchon captures how conflict followed from Imperialism, which followed from Capitalism, which was founded on the separation of labor and capital, as well as male and female.
The Interwovenness of Desires
From an individual perspective, opposites often attract, if only motivated by the desire to reunite what was once one ("the secular expressions of a rupture within a single damaged soul").
This is often the most fascinating aspect of Pynchon novels. His early works were ineffably romantic, "Against the Day", even more so (fewer characters being truly uneffable).
This novel is what I'd call "anarcho-romantic", opposing power and master/slave relationships with freedom and equality, both socially and sexually.
We shouldn't be wasting our time building wealth for capitalists and imperialists, but punning, playing games and having sex in some new Utopian commonwealth of nations and genders. (I'll give it a go...again!)
The Triumph of the Night
Sex is a major part of "Against the Day", as if it's the most obvious activity to engage in at night (when pitted against the day).
Pynchon's representation of sex is a product of liberation. It doesn't come attached to any particular configuration of genders, body parts or numerical permutations and combinations, as long as you're having at least one orgasm (each), some fun, a giggle or a look.
She is the World
For all the sex, this fictional world is just as much a woman's, as a man's, world.
Its 70 chapters are a quasi-biblical septuagint. Towards the end, it segued into a nativity story of Yashmeen's Christ-like daughter, Ljubica (literal meaning: love or kiss; violet [see also chaya or etheric double]). However, this is just one of many tales of family, love, romance, passion, flirtation and kissing in the novel.
Whereas the focus of "V." was the feminine and "Gravity's Rainbow" the masculine, "Against the Day" suggests that what is paramount, in the night of the liberated imagination and against the rationalism of the pseudo-illuminated day, is our relationships with each other, including and especially family.
Perhaps, at the end of the day, family is even more important than mathematics and science. All we need is love.
The Green Hour
Did I mention food, alcohol and drugs?
Meals are intimately described, as if on a menu. The alcohol is as diverse as the geographical canvas of the narrative. The drugs reflect the taste of an author born in the 30's writing about the time before his birth.
The alcohol and drugs, in particular, enable us to see what is not there, sometimes even what is there but invisible.
"Or, as we like to say, l’heure vertigineuse."
Oops, I just realised I hadn't mentioned philately or cricket, the latter of which is the greatest game, the game that witnessed an empire become a commonwealth of sorts. But for that, you'll have to peruse the sundries below...
(view spoiler)
A Rhapsody of Exquisitely Mindful Pleasures
"Nobody ever said a day has to be juggled into any kind of sense at day's end."
[Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"]
Most authors inadvertently encourage us to be lazy readers. They make it too easy to read their fiction. We expect authors to comply with conventions of story-telling, a manageable number of characters, a narrative arc, a sense of relevance and progress towards a conclusion, a climax, a goal, a realisation and/or an understanding.
Pynchon doesn't necessarily write this way. He takes us to a world that might look like ours, but it is potentially alien (or at least foreign), in that there are some things or a lot of things that we do not know or understand about it.
"I'll tell you a story someday. Maybe."
[Thomas Pynchon, "Against the Day"]
What we see and experience at first might look familiar, superficially, but ours is the experience of a tourist, a stranger in a strange land or a space traveler landing on a distant moon or planet.
We have to construct knowledge, meaning and understanding, bit by bit, like a spy, a sleuth or a detective.
"...a crime, often of the gravest sort, committed in a detective story, may often be only a pretext for the posing and solution of some narrative puzzle..."
[Thomas Pynchon, "Against the Day"]
Pynchon doesn't just present his fictional world to us in easily digested mouthfuls. Whether or not his novels are difficult, they require mastication, exertion. We have to work on them. We have to do our bit. Having bitten off, we must chew.
This is their challenge, but even more importantly this is our reward. Pynchon offers us not mindless pleasures (an early working title for "Gravity's Rainbow"), but exquisitely mindful pleasures.
"'Oh, you're overthinking it all,' Yashmeen said, 'as usual.'"
[Thomas Pynchon, "Against the Day"]
That said, what would a Pynchon novel be if you didn't endeavour to think (or overthink) it through?
Are we meant to settle for studied incomprehension?
"NOW SINGLE UP ALL LINES!"
The first line of the novel is a nautical term that relates to the preparation of a ship (or in this case, an airship) to leave its mooring and depart (or take off).
Several sets of double ropes would normally secure the ship in its place. This command reduces the mooring to one rope in each position. It’s a halfway step.
Just as it releases the ship, it releases the lines themselves: once freed of their burden, the lines can now float free. They might also represent the verbal lines of the book, which are then commanded to cast off “cheerly now... handsomely... very well,� a perfect description of what Pynchon proceeds to do throughout the novel. He writes comically, eloquently and effectively.
"It's Always Night, or We Wouldn't Need Light"
The epigraph is attributed to Thelonious Monk in a Time Magazine profile published in 1964. While it might have been an expression that Monk used frequently, it could be a misquotation of another expression attributed to Monk by the saxophonist Steve Lacy in 1960:
"It must be always night, otherwise they wouldn't need the lights."
The two expressions have slightly different connotations. The first implies that the darkness of the night requires the enlightenment of the day or lighting. However, the second, in the context of jazz musicians playing at night in clubs, implies that the dimly lit darkness is a precondition for their music, their creativity, spontaneity and improvisation.
The darkness is not a negative quality that needs to be alleviated by the light. It’s a positive that allows individuals to perform at their best.
"Against the Day"
This construction, if it’s credible, hints at the meaning of the title "against the day".
In the novel, which is set between the 1890’s and the early 1920’s (the era in which Modernism began), it’s the light of day that is the negative. It symbolises the work of the Devil, the obviousness and conformity of the crowd, and its scrutiny by the powers that be (whether governments or employers).
Pynchon’s sympathy is very much with non-conformists, anarchists and socialists who are battling against capitalism and imperialism (or different manifestations of civilisation promoted by Great Britain, Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Tsarist Russia and Turkey), often with the only tools available to them: strikes, protests, assassinations, bombings and terrorism.
The latter are the underground (the counterculture), the former the overground (the over the counter culture).
Above them all are the Chums of Chance, "a five-lad crew" (plus their dog, Pugnax, who enjoys reading Henry James� “The Princess Casamassima�, also a novel about radical politics featuring a terrorist assassination plot) who float above the world in their airship (“the Inconvenience�), privileged to have a map-like perspective or birdseye view of the clashes of civilisations occurring on the surface.
By befriending chance, they too oppose (law and) order, and embrace the chaos of unrestrained freedom, free as birds (although as Bob Dylan would later ask in "Ballad In Plain D", "are birds free from the chains of the skyway?")
Servants of Greed and Force
Underlying the clash of civilisations is a (daylit) certainty that I (the sovereign Subject) am right and you (the Other object which is the subject of sovereignty) are wrong.
Pynchon questions certitude and power from both mathematical and metaphysical perspectives.
The maths might deter some readers who would otherwise thoroughly enjoy the novel. However, in truth, it's not necessary to study up on it, unless you're particularly inclined to do so. It's primarily contextual, and there is enough explanation in the novel itself to get Pynchon's drift.
The maths is largely dispensed with in the first third to half of the novel. I tried to keep up, but still found myself doing some online research to determine how much I was missing out on. However, once I felt that I had some basic layman's understanding of the issues, I was content to focus on the pleasures of the text.
This mightn't be much comfort to a sceptical or impatient reader, but I found that it was a lot easier to read, comprehend and enjoy the novel after the first 490 pages or so!
The Fork in the Silk Road
The maths helps to understand the concept of doubling or coupling that is fundamental to the book.
Neither concept is far removed from Nabokov's employment of doubles in "Lolita". It's a literary or cultural device, in this case, one built on a mathematical or scientific foundation.
If we start with a ray of light passing through a prism (such as Iceland spar), it's possible that the ray might be refracted into two sets of waves or particles. Thus, the thing that was once singular might now be separate or double. If there is a symmetry between the refracted light, one wave might be the opposite or inverse of the other.
Thus, we have the potential for both "bi-location" and "algebraic coupling".
However, what is separate or inverted can potentially be joined or reverted.
Pynchon jokes that the German word "und" when refracted and inverted might become the English word "pun". Thus, yet again (after "Mason & Dixon"), a conjunction is both significant and comical.
Metaphysically, what was once one, but is now two, might either engage in a life and death struggle, or seek to be re-united.
Thus, the double can either encounter itself in duplicity or oneness.
This is equally applicable to nations and people.
Dive-Bombing into the Day
From a national perspective, duplicity can result in war, unless resolved by treaty or entente.
There's much conflict between civilisations and nations in the novel. This aspect reminded me of Lawrence Durrell's works "White Eagles Over Serbia" and "The Alexandria Quartet", just as much as boys' own adventure stories from the days of the British Empire (subsequently reprised in the likes of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and steam-punk).
Pynchon captures how conflict followed from Imperialism, which followed from Capitalism, which was founded on the separation of labor and capital, as well as male and female.
The Interwovenness of Desires
From an individual perspective, opposites often attract, if only motivated by the desire to reunite what was once one ("the secular expressions of a rupture within a single damaged soul").
This is often the most fascinating aspect of Pynchon novels. His early works were ineffably romantic, "Against the Day", even more so (fewer characters being truly uneffable).
This novel is what I'd call "anarcho-romantic", opposing power and master/slave relationships with freedom and equality, both socially and sexually.
We shouldn't be wasting our time building wealth for capitalists and imperialists, but punning, playing games and having sex in some new Utopian commonwealth of nations and genders. (I'll give it a go...again!)
I Heart Yashmeen Halfcourt
The Triumph of the Night
Sex is a major part of "Against the Day", as if it's the most obvious activity to engage in at night (when pitted against the day).
Pynchon's representation of sex is a product of liberation. It doesn't come attached to any particular configuration of genders, body parts or numerical permutations and combinations, as long as you're having at least one orgasm (each), some fun, a giggle or a look.
She is the World
For all the sex, this fictional world is just as much a woman's, as a man's, world.
Its 70 chapters are a quasi-biblical septuagint. Towards the end, it segued into a nativity story of Yashmeen's Christ-like daughter, Ljubica (literal meaning: love or kiss; violet [see also chaya or etheric double]). However, this is just one of many tales of family, love, romance, passion, flirtation and kissing in the novel.
Whereas the focus of "V." was the feminine and "Gravity's Rainbow" the masculine, "Against the Day" suggests that what is paramount, in the night of the liberated imagination and against the rationalism of the pseudo-illuminated day, is our relationships with each other, including and especially family.
Perhaps, at the end of the day, family is even more important than mathematics and science. All we need is love.
The Green Hour
Did I mention food, alcohol and drugs?
Meals are intimately described, as if on a menu. The alcohol is as diverse as the geographical canvas of the narrative. The drugs reflect the taste of an author born in the 30's writing about the time before his birth.
The alcohol and drugs, in particular, enable us to see what is not there, sometimes even what is there but invisible.
"Or, as we like to say, l’heure vertigineuse."
Oops, I just realised I hadn't mentioned philately or cricket, the latter of which is the greatest game, the game that witnessed an empire become a commonwealth of sorts. But for that, you'll have to peruse the sundries below...
(view spoiler)
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Reading Progress
February 23, 2011
– Shelved
October 25, 2011
– Shelved as:
exert-yourself
October 25, 2012
– Shelved as:
pynchon
December 13, 2015
–
Started Reading
December 14, 2015
–
68.0%
"So far, it's like listening to a vinyl record that hasn't been played before. The needle's jumping all over the place. It hasn't got into the groove yet. I'm busy keeping tabs on the list of characters. The Chums of Chance remind me of the Whole Sick Crew. The dog Pugnax reminds me of Darconville's Cat, Spellvexit. Anarchism seems to be pitted against a celebration of American entrepreneurialism and chicanery."
December 14, 2015
–
6.27%
"So far, it's like listening to a vinyl record that hasn't been played before. The needle's jumping all over the place. It hasn't got into the groove yet. I'm busy keeping tabs on the list of characters. The Chums of Chance remind me of the Whole Sick Crew. The dog Pugnax reminds me of Darconville's Cat, Spellvexit. Anarchism seems to be pitted against a celebration of American entrepreneurialism and chicanery."
page
68
December 15, 2015
–
9.68%
"...here, on the desolate lee shore whose back country is death."
page
105
December 15, 2015
–
10.23%
"Explosion without an objective is politics in its purest form.
If we don't take care, folks will begin to confuse us with Anarcho-syndicalists."
page
111
If we don't take care, folks will begin to confuse us with Anarcho-syndicalists."
December 15, 2015
–
10.32%
"...consider the nature of a skyrocket's ascent, in particular that unseen extension of the visible trail, after the propellant charge burns out, yet before the slow-match has ignited the display - that implied moment of ongoing passage upward, in the dark sky, a linear continuum of points invisible yet present, just before lights by the hundreds appear..."
page
112
December 15, 2015
–
10.41%
"...the boys would grasp unreflectively at a chance to transcend 'the secular'."
page
113
December 15, 2015
–
10.51%
"...a different form of calcium carbonate - namely...microscopic crystals of the doubly-refracting calcite known as Iceland spar. Ordinary light, passing through this mineral, was divided into two separate rays, termed 'ordinary' and 'extraordinary'..."
page
114
December 16, 2015
–
11.15%
"The Northern Lights which had drawn them from their childhood beds in lower latitudes on so many winter nights...could now be viewed up here at any time from within, at altitude, in heavenwide pulses of colour, dense sheets and billows and colonnades of light and current, in transfiguration unceasing."
page
121
December 16, 2015
–
11.34%
"...the legendary 'Bol'shaia Igra' or 'The Great Game'...hung distant but dogged upon their starboard quarter, red as a cursed ruby representing a third eye in the brow of some idol of the incomprehensible."
page
123
December 16, 2015
–
11.71%
"Tales survived here from the first millennium, the first small pack of outlaws on the run, not yet come to be haunted by any promise of Christ's return, thinking only of the ax-bearing avengers at their backs, setting off westward, suicidally cheerful, almost careless..."
page
127
December 16, 2015
–
12.07%
"The Transnoctial ('across the night') Discussion Group :
Now we have taken the first wingbeats of what will allow us to begin colonising the Sky. Somewhere in it, God dwells in His Heavenly City. How far into that unmapped wilderness shall we journey before we find Him? Will He withdraw before our advance, continue to withdraw into the Infinite?"
page
131
Now we have taken the first wingbeats of what will allow us to begin colonising the Sky. Somewhere in it, God dwells in His Heavenly City. How far into that unmapped wilderness shall we journey before we find Him? Will He withdraw before our advance, continue to withdraw into the Infinite?"
December 16, 2015
–
12.35%
"Iceland spar is what hides the Hidden People, makes it possible for them to move through the world that thinks of itself as 'real', provides that all-important ninety-degree twist to their light, so they can exist alongside our own world but not be seen. They and others as well, visitors from elsewhere, of non-human aspect."
page
134
December 16, 2015
–
12.35%
"There's so much beautiful writing in this novel so far, but sometimes individual sentences leap off the page and blow your mind. Pynchon is one of the few wordsmiths and sentencemasters who gets better and better over time."
page
134
December 17, 2015
– Shelved as:
marx-bros-and-karl
December 20, 2015
–
12.44%
"Gangs of petty criminals swept by from time to time, committing no offence more serious than staring."
page
135
December 28, 2015
–
Finished Reading
December 29, 2015
– Shelved as:
reviews-5-stars
December 29, 2015
– Shelved as:
reviews
December 29, 2015
– Shelved as:
read-2015
Comments Showing 1-50 of 108 (108 new)
Some avuncular mutation.
I've bought Against the Day and it's on my reading challenge for next year. Having read your review, I'm not sure if I'm inspired or discouraged. However, I'm going to read it anyway. Then I'll read your spoiler (I usually don't care, though, about spoilers so I'll probably end up reading it anyway!).
Ellie, this isn't a finished review. And the spoilers are just ideas I didn't want to clog anybody's feed with yet. They won't spoil anything.I love this book unconditionally!
I'm actually up to page 740. I just haven't had time to do any updates. I'm trying to finish it before New Year.
Pynchonesque this morning:"Police in Vienna have stepped up security around the city after a warning to several European capitals about a possible attack between Christmas and new year...
The warning did give several names of potential attackers, the statement said, but an investigation into the names had not produced concrete results.
Christoph Pölzl, a spokesman for Vienna police, said:
'We do not know if these people exist in real life, or if they are only names with no real person behind them. We have no evidence that they are in Vienna, and we have no evidence that they are even in Europe.'�
The enemy is everywhere and nowhere!
'He takes us to a world that might look like ours, but it is potentially alien (or at least foreign)'There! You said it, Ian. A terrific review of a book that I am keen on sampling someday. Thank you.
And wish you a wonderful 2016.
Thanks, Seemita. I said so many silly things in my review, I ran out of space to say that this is a wonderful inclusive panoramic tapestry or mosaic vision of the world. I hope you enjoy 2016 in all respects.
I'm glad now it's on my challenge list.Btw, you made me want to read The Princess Casamassima: A Novel. It's been a long time since I've read Henry James. In fact, after so much etext, I'm worried I can't handle him any more.
Ellie wrote: "I'm glad now it's on my challenge list.Btw, you made me want to read The Princess Casamassima: A Novel. It's been a long time since I've read Henry James. In fact, after so much etext, I'm worried I can't handle him any more. "
I'm interested as well, I read a lot of James at school.
Fatty wrote: "Great review. But what sort of math are we talking here?"Thanks, Fatty. Vectors and Quaternions.
See the spoiler at the foot of my review (no plot spoilers) and message 3 here:
Adaptive Complexity
A an awesome review. Just tucking into this one now, so my excitement has increased. Also, I could watch those Warney vids all day.
Keep an eye out for all the cricket talk in the book, and come back and read my pome! I'm sure Pynchon was watching Warney when he was writing the book.
As always, you write to pique interest, and you write so well my interest is often piqued.You say, ". . . but I found that it was a lot easier to read, comprehend and enjoy the novel after the first 490 pages or so!" What a relief to know that. I started this when the book first appeared in paper, and left it behind shortly afterward. (My bookmark, which is a 5x8 card listing characters, is tuck at page 127.) I don't remember it as being especially difficult or dense, I just left it to do other things. I was way busier in those days, so I might just take another look, that is after I get to the 20 or 30 volumes stacked up for me to read.
Happy New Year to you. Here's to another year in books.
I love every word of your responses. Your interpretation of the title makes sense. Your pulling out a a theme of duplication and the choice of war or re-merging is wonderful, reminding me of matter and antimatter. Marvelous poems in your value-added section, especially the smiles of upper pills vs. the downers from Teutonic Bills, the cricket talk, and frippery over one of those baffling Pynchon words, lambic. Charmed by your flight into music connections (which makes me divert in mind to the Beatles' "Come Together", "Across the Universe", and "A Day in the Life").
Margaret wrote: "As always, you write to pique interest, and you write so well my interest is often piqued."Thanks, Margaret. That's such an astute comment. I'm motivated by the old Mitsubishi campaign: "Please consider!"
By the same token, there are times when I can't resist jousting with or tilting at the windmills of puffery!
Michael wrote: "I love every word of your responses. Your interpretation of the title makes sense. Your pulling out a a theme of duplication and the choice of war or re-merging is wonderful, reminding me of matter..."Thanks, Michael. Your comments are very generous.
Pynchon inspires (if that's the right word) me, just as Rabelais does. There is a richness of imagination and language that really turns on my lightbulb. Postmodernism, like life, doesn't have to be all earnest and humourless.
Those Beatles songs are three of my favourite Lennon songs.
I've been thinking of "Across the Universe" a fair bit over the last fortnight. Now I can't remember why. Was it because Bowie did a cover version?
It must be about 10 yrs for me with this bk, so forgive if the following is already covered within....In mid 2oth cent cinematography the French would refer to a back-lighted or silhouetted scene as 'contre jour' or very literally, a scene framed "against the day".
From there you're looking at shapes, outlines, shadows often--though not always... ; maybe 3D compressed to 2D, perhaps even like that cave of plato's... Over to you-- your rabbit hole.
Thought provoking review. J.
J. wrote: "In mid 2oth cent cinematography the French would refer to a back-lighted or silhouetted scene as 'contre jour' or very literally, a scene framed "against the day". .."Thanks, J. I'm surprised I hadn't come across this term or connotation before. It would probably force me to reconsider my interpretation of the metaphor, though backlighting can highlight the contrast between light and dark.
(without being at all obtuse, backlighting in itself is just backlighting.. it's *exposure* that will make of it a hard, contrasty silhouette, or a soft, bloomy low-contrast image)And yeah, I know I knew of this usage when I read the book and even still can't say it prompted me to apply the metaphor. But we're talking at least ten years ago and let's remember, a book where there is a talking dog involved, so.... who knows..
Brilliant review Ian but not much encouragement to me struggling at the beginning of this daunting work! Still, an inspiration so maybe that's a kind of encouragement.
Thanks, Ellie. I hope you get into the swing of things!
I was finally able to complete the book-a real challenge but one well worth the effort. Your review is even more meaningful to me now and I will be rereading it (your review) several more times. As to the book, I really should reread it at least once but who knows? So difficult but so rewarding. Just breathtaking.
Ellie wrote: "I was finally able to complete the book-a real challenge but one well worth the effort. Your review is even more meaningful to me now and I will be rereading it (your review) several more times. As..."Thanks, Ellie. This was really just a string of personal impressions and opinions.
an excellent review to a brilliant book. I had written a long review trying to break down the philosophy and politics of this masterpiece, but then I realized that, first of all, you've already done it better, and, to me, this book was more like a symphony than a novel, something to be enjoyed for its beauty rather than its specifics.
Aiden wrote: "an excellent review to a brilliant book. I had written a long review trying to break down the philosophy and politics of this masterpiece, but then I realized that, first of all, you've already don..."Thanks, Aiden. I'd love to have read what you wrote. Your review is fantastic as it is.
Hey, the brand new Santa Nickerless novel is getting rave reviews and ratings from his sister, his (reciprocal) publisher (Sagging Prepuces Press) and a grateful and obliging publishee of his co-owned technically insolvent (i.e., not for profit) Wordifallacious Press. The coterie is on the move.
Oh, Ian. You must be out to challenge the "Best Troll of All Time" award I was just given. While I deride when they collectively extoll Vollmann and McIntyre, this one really looks excellent to me.
You should well understand the take of one not inclined to follow party lines, and I like some of the things they like. Consider also that NR has had this book since late March and he just started it today.
The quotes I've seen are insightful and wickedly funny. I thought that the only possible drawback might be if people see themselves characterized, but then I remembered that few have that ability, and those who do are likely to see the humor.
Does that make me a Coterie wannabee?
You should well understand the take of one not inclined to follow party lines, and I like some of the things they like. Consider also that NR has had this book since late March and he just started it today.
The quotes I've seen are insightful and wickedly funny. I thought that the only possible drawback might be if people see themselves characterized, but then I remembered that few have that ability, and those who do are likely to see the humor.
Does that make me a Coterie wannabee?
PierceG wrote: "Oh, Ian. You must be out to challenge the "Best Troll of All Time" award I was just given. While I deride when they collectively extoll Vollmann and McIntyre, this one really looks excellent to me...."So you managed to wangle a free copy?
Ian wrote; "So you managed to wangle a free copy?"
You think I'm dumb enough to give these hucksters my e-mail or home address? Jeez. My computer would crash and/or my mail box fall down from all the ads.
My aim is true. Arthur Graham took extensive quotes, and based on what I saw I figured that Santa would have to go out of his way to ruin the rest, and that seems very unlikely.
You said; "his (reciprocal) publisher."
Well, it's reciprocation that makes the world go around.
And BTW, you know damn well that not-for-profit does not necessarily equal technically-insolvent unless you think that the Catholic Church is technically-insolvent.
I would not want to belong to any club which would accept me. That is reciprocated by none making any overtures.
You think I'm dumb enough to give these hucksters my e-mail or home address? Jeez. My computer would crash and/or my mail box fall down from all the ads.
My aim is true. Arthur Graham took extensive quotes, and based on what I saw I figured that Santa would have to go out of his way to ruin the rest, and that seems very unlikely.
You said; "his (reciprocal) publisher."
Well, it's reciprocation that makes the world go around.
And BTW, you know damn well that not-for-profit does not necessarily equal technically-insolvent unless you think that the Catholic Church is technically-insolvent.
I would not want to belong to any club which would accept me. That is reciprocated by none making any overtures.
And Ian; Pillings book. Come on. Among other fundamental errors found in two paragraphs, he thinks heroin sales are part of GDP.
I'll be the first to say that many economically utilized numbers are severely flawed in method of calculation, but that they are pretty good in showing trends. Econometrics failed to accurately predict things as one might have suspected, but certain dynamics such as rising interest rates being a detriment to profits and the market consistently work.
I guess Pillings would like to replace all these imperfect monetary measurements with presses on some "like" button.
I'll be the first to say that many economically utilized numbers are severely flawed in method of calculation, but that they are pretty good in showing trends. Econometrics failed to accurately predict things as one might have suspected, but certain dynamics such as rising interest rates being a detriment to profits and the market consistently work.
I guess Pillings would like to replace all these imperfect monetary measurements with presses on some "like" button.
"I think somebody ought to put out the big light."
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PierceG wrote: ""I think somebody ought to put out the big light."..."
When I hear the silly things that you say...
PierceG wrote: "Ian wrote; "So you managed to wangle a free copy?"You think I'm dumb enough to give these hucksters my e-mail or home address? Jeez. My computer would crash and/or my mail box fall down from all ..."
I like Raine Upright the best ;) The rest is like Bananarama B-sides and rarities.
Que? BTW, the last url doesn't work.
Ian wrote; "I like Raine Upright the best ;) The rest is like Bananarama B-sides and rarities. "
I don't understand, but if the Bananarama reference is to Santa's book, that's actually one of the things I liked of it. Bananarama sells and what's wrong with doing something which can also appeal to those not proud to be residents of an ivory tower; that a possible recognition of the plain blue and white wrapper.
Speaking of that, besides being a conceptual antique; WT Gaddis has the most annoying writing style. I was following along with a Moore annotation, and what WTG takes a thousand, sometimes convoluted words to say, SM sums up in a medium length sentence. I know some people like this, but a forerunner of DFW? My ass.
I don't understand, but if the Bananarama reference is to Santa's book, that's actually one of the things I liked of it. Bananarama sells and what's wrong with doing something which can also appeal to those not proud to be residents of an ivory tower; that a possible recognition of the plain blue and white wrapper.
Speaking of that, besides being a conceptual antique; WT Gaddis has the most annoying writing style. I was following along with a Moore annotation, and what WTG takes a thousand, sometimes convoluted words to say, SM sums up in a medium length sentence. I know some people like this, but a forerunner of DFW? My ass.
PierceG wrote: "Ian wrote; "I like Raine Upright the best ;) The rest is like Bananarama B-sides and rarities. "I don't understand, but if the Bananarama reference is to Santa's book, ..."
Both references are to Santa's book.
Are you reading Gaddis or reading Moore? Or two books in one/ at the same time? Have you joined the Annotation Nation?
Ian wrote: "PierceG wrote: "Ian wrote; "I like Raine Upright the best ;) The rest is like Bananarama B-sides and rarities. "
I don't understand, but if the Bananarama reference is to Santa's book, ..."
Both ..."
Well, I stopped. But while I was making an attempt at "The recognitions" I was also looking at Moore's "synopsis" annotations. It was almost a necessity for me. WTG's style somewhat reminds me of some current day fantasy YA writers; like that Salt Lake City guy, were he verbivoracious.
But yes, I've been reading some Moore unrelated to WTG pretty much whenever I run into a link.
I don't understand, but if the Bananarama reference is to Santa's book, ..."
Both ..."
Well, I stopped. But while I was making an attempt at "The recognitions" I was also looking at Moore's "synopsis" annotations. It was almost a necessity for me. WTG's style somewhat reminds me of some current day fantasy YA writers; like that Salt Lake City guy, were he verbivoracious.
But yes, I've been reading some Moore unrelated to WTG pretty much whenever I run into a link.
Moore specialises in telling post-modernist undergraduates what they ought to read and think, i.e., he orchestrates reception.
No doubt you're right; but the one I remember most was an essay about Rikki Ducornet, and along with me finding an internet person who said she was the inspiration for Steely Dan's "Rikki Don't Lose That Number," I guess my interest in her was either orchestrated or personally improvised; hard to tell.
Hard to say. This is no rejection of Ian Graye. And frankly, I'm not exactly a post-modern undergraduate. When I started this, I had a natural inclination toward some degree of what is most often incorrectly termed as post-modernism, though I wouldn't have made that association at the time.
Unlike most here, this is truly a retirement hobby for me, and it seems to make my outlook different. As a consequence I also did not find books any sort of sacred thing or calling, just regarding it as another form of entertainment. So while the writers and reviewers seek to expand their markets and philosophies, the money aspect would be fine if it happened, but no big deal if it didn't. It's intended to be fun after spending decades in banks. BTW, I don't "market" at all.
In the context of Moore, I could say some things which don't impress me, but relatively new to me, there are those who like to "space out" with a long meandering book. Didn't get it at all at first. Guess it makes the world go away for a while. Fine by me. It's probably not very different than what I've done with music. I don't like or respect the "wolf pack stuff," but it looks like the pack has backed off Ian Graye now, pending the next Paul Bryant po-mo commentary thread. Seems reasonable to me.
And as far as Moore "orchestrating reception," did you expect him to "orchestrate rejection?" For my tastes he's more thorough than I care to be. It reminds me of my briefly artist wife who would say; "Don't make it look too studied."
In the course of a day, I'll probably read parts of more than 10 people, most of the time not really liking any of them. I don't feel obliged unless someone gave me more money than anyone on GR can be reasonably expected to give me. So dilettante? Rookie? Idiot? Incompetent? Whatever you say. I've heard these things before and they only matter if they're accompanied by a reduction in income.
You did say you played some sports. Didn't you?
Unlike most here, this is truly a retirement hobby for me, and it seems to make my outlook different. As a consequence I also did not find books any sort of sacred thing or calling, just regarding it as another form of entertainment. So while the writers and reviewers seek to expand their markets and philosophies, the money aspect would be fine if it happened, but no big deal if it didn't. It's intended to be fun after spending decades in banks. BTW, I don't "market" at all.
In the context of Moore, I could say some things which don't impress me, but relatively new to me, there are those who like to "space out" with a long meandering book. Didn't get it at all at first. Guess it makes the world go away for a while. Fine by me. It's probably not very different than what I've done with music. I don't like or respect the "wolf pack stuff," but it looks like the pack has backed off Ian Graye now, pending the next Paul Bryant po-mo commentary thread. Seems reasonable to me.
And as far as Moore "orchestrating reception," did you expect him to "orchestrate rejection?" For my tastes he's more thorough than I care to be. It reminds me of my briefly artist wife who would say; "Don't make it look too studied."
In the course of a day, I'll probably read parts of more than 10 people, most of the time not really liking any of them. I don't feel obliged unless someone gave me more money than anyone on GR can be reasonably expected to give me. So dilettante? Rookie? Idiot? Incompetent? Whatever you say. I've heard these things before and they only matter if they're accompanied by a reduction in income.
You did say you played some sports. Didn't you?
Do you really think that MJ's book is all that bad?
Ian wrote; "Pynchon captures how conflict followed from Imperialism, which followed from Capitalism, which was founded on the separation of labor and capital, as well as male and female."
The implication is that conflict has something to do with "modern" economic systems. Conflict pre-dates them.
The implication is that conflict has something to do with "modern" economic systems. Conflict pre-dates them.
"Mostly say 'hooray for our side.''"
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GR = father
TCOL49 = child/daughter
ATD = ???...the world???