More Against the Days

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

"Against The Day" strikes me as "Against The Day of judgement, of wrath", there's an apocalyptic cast to the phrase, and a feeling of justice held in restraint. The muted posthorn came to mind: the message from on high has been delayed for yet another day. 
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Paul Nightingale" <isread at btopenworld.com>
> 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.
> 
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>