Against the Day/Songs

[Chris Broderick]

Hello.  I'm one of those who just joined the list
thanks to Slate, though I knew of it, thanks to the
someone passing out free copies of Lineland at Burning
Man, which I finished reading before I washed off the
crust of Black Rock City.

Anyway, I just wanted to comment on the various bits
of speculation about the title Against the Day.  It
seems that this is all in a piece with a significant
(to my mind at least) thematic element in GR, that of
preterition.  If so, the part in Pynchon's blurb (I
cling to the belief that it was him!) that begged off
any comparison of the Day in the title to the present
is at least a little disingenuous, considering how
many American foax are of the belief that, to
paraphrase Robert Anton Wilson, the eschaton is
immanent (as evidenced by the horrors in the Mideast,
Gay Marriage, parents unwilling to whip their kids,
etc.)

But I digress (I'm on the Pynchon list, so digressions
are welcome, right?)  My point is that an element that
was prevalent in GR of those who struggle against the
idea of apocalypse seems to be front & center in this
latest novel, at least as far as these mysterious
missives are concerned.  That warms my heart
considerably, not that I would shun any work by Mr.
Pynchon at this point regardless of its level of
apocalypse shunning.

Another element that makes me particularly hungry for
this piece is the time period.  To my mind, one of the
stronger elements of GR (and one of the lesser
elements of the subsequent 2 novels) was Mr. Pynchon's
facility with song lyrics that fit the period.  The
man obviously knows his Cole Porter and Rodgers &
Hammerstein, and knows how to tweak them
appropriately.  It has long been a fantasy of mine to
put many of the lyrics of GR to music, simply because
it would be so easy (which is less true of Vineland
and M&D, since he seems to have less facility with
rock both punk and hippie and early American music,
respectively.  So a novel by TP set in the dawn of the
20th-Century sets this musician's heart aflutter.

Anyway, I blather on too long.

Thanks,
Chris

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