AtDDtA1: Blurb

[Dave Monroe]

Against the Day description

The following is the blurb, attributed to Thomas Pynchon, that
appeared, disappeared and reappeared on Amazon.com, for Pynchon's
latest novel, Against the Day, released 11/21/06 by Penguin Press.
This piece of writing was also used in promotional materials by the
publisher, and was eventually edited down (with all author attribution
removed) for the book jacket flap copy.


As posted on Amazon.com

Spanning the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the
years just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor troubles
in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Göttingen,
Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of
the mysterious Tunguska Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar
Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly
speaking on the map at all.

With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time
of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic
fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the
present day is intended or should be inferred. The sizable cast of
characters includes anarchists, balloonists, gamblers, corporate
tycoons, drug enthusiasts, innocents and decadents, mathematicians,
mad scientists, shamans, psychics, and stage magicians, spies,
detectives, adventuresses, and hired guns. There are cameo appearances
by Nikola Tesla, Bela Lugosi, and Groucho Marx.

As an era of certainty comes crashing down around their ears and an
unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just trying to
pursue their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes it's
their lives that pursue them.

Meanwhile, the author is up to his usual business. Characters stop
what they're doing to sing what are for the most part stupid songs.
Strange sexual practices take place. Obscure languages are spoken, not
always idiomatically. Contrary-to-the-fact occurrences occur. If it is
not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment
or two. According to some this is one of the main purposes of fiction.

Let the reader decide, let the reader beware. Good luck.

—Thomas Pynchon


As seen on the book jacket

Spanning the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the
years just after World War I, Against the Day moves from the labor
troubles in Colorado to  turn-of-the-century New York, to London and
Göttingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at
the time of the mysterious Tunguska Event, Mexico during the
Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places
not strictly speaking on the map at all.

With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time
of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic
fecklessness, and evil intent in high places.

The sizable cast of characters includes anarchists, balloonists,
gamblers, corporate tycoons, drug enthusiasts, innocents and
decadents, mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, psychics, and
stage magicians, spies, detectives, adventuresses, and hired guns.
There are cameo appearances by Nikolai Tesla, Bela Lugosi, and Groucho
Marx.

As an era of certainty comes crashing down around their ears and an
unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just trying to
pursue their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes it's
their lives that pursue them.

Meanwhile, Thomas Pynchon is up to his usual business. Characters stop
what they're doing to sing what are for the most part stupid songs.
Strange and weird sexual practices take place. Obscure languages are
spoken, not always idiomatically. Contrary-to-the-fact occurrences
occur. Maybe it's not the world, but with a minor adjustment or two
it's what the world might be.

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Against_the_Day_description

Cf. ...

http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781594201202,00.html


In mid-July 2006, a plot synopsis signed by Pynchon himself appeared
on Amazon.com, only to vanish a few days later. This disappearance
provoked speculation on blogs and the PYNCHON-L mailing list about
publicity stunts and viral marketing schemes. Shortly  thereafter,
Slate published a brief article revealing that the blurb's early
appearance was a mistake on the part of the publisher, Penguin Press.
Associated Press indicated the title of the previously anonymous novel
(a book by Michael Cronin of the same title also exists, dealing with
an alternate history of World War II).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_the_Day#Speculation_prior_to_publication

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_the_Day#Author.27s_synopsis.2Fbook_jacket_copy


Cronin, Michael.  Against the Day.
  New York: Oxford UP, 2003 [1998].

http://www.uchronia.net/bib.cgi/label.html?id=cronagains

http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780192752673&view=oxed

Also ...

Egerton, John.  Speak Now Against the Day:
  The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South.
  Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1995.

http://uncpress.unc.edu/books/t-2.html