AtD 146 lines (spoiled)

[Ray Easton]

On Thursday, Nov 30, 2006, at 12:23 US/Central, Jasper Fidget wrote:

> Which makes sense, but then how to fully understand the opening line of
> the book (line one, a single line in length) -- "Now single up all
> lines!" -- commonly interpreted as, to quote Quail, "simultaneously a
> self-directive and a call to the reader; suggesting that Against the 
> Day
> is a culmination of his previous work, and also charging the reader to
> find meaning within its twisting labyrinth."  Does P intend to reduce
> his work to "linear thinking"?  Or is this an ominous opening for AtD,
> the beginning of a linearity motif?  Is the urge to tie everything
> together a trap, a pitfall for the reader?  Are the Chums the agency of
> singling up all lines throughout the book?  Is singling up all lines a
> positive thing or a negative thing (or both, as with so much else in
> this book)?

I'm not suggesting that the first sentence of a 1085 novel, especially 
one by Pynchon, is not pregnant with meaning beyond the literal, but 
before attaching too many non-literal meanings to it, it might be well 
to consider what it does mean literally.

And literally it says nothing about linearity or about tying things 
together.  It's the nautical equivalent of "fasten your seat belts and 
put your tray tables in the locked and upright position".