More Against the Days

[Paul Nightingale]

When the novel was first announced (with title) I did a general search to
see how many different uses/roles the phrase might have. Put simply, one
version invokes the wrath of god if the speaker isn't heeded, their words
acted upon straightaway. I think this is the way in which Faulkner (as
quoted in Egerton's Speak Now Against the Day) was using the phrase. A
second common usage, following Jasper's "in the eventuality of", is "to take
out insurance in anticipation of". Act now to (hopefully) stop something
happening, or act now in anticipation that it will happen. Whether or not P
has a specific quotation in mind, it's interesting that the phrase positions
speakers so differently. It might be argued that WW1 was, at the time, the
foreseeable conclusion to an arms' race that began in the 1880s, as well as,
eg, the scramble for Africa and other colonialist conflicts. One can see how
contemporary commentators (pro- or anti-Imperialism) might have used the
phrase in those two ways.