Against The Day

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

        ". . . .readers are referred to The Chums of Chance 
        in the Bowels of the Earth---for some reason one 
        of the less appealing of this series, letters having 
        come as far away as Tunbridge Wells, England, 
        expressing displeasure, often quite intense, with 
        my harmless little intraterrestrial scherzo." 
        AtD 117

        Da Fonz:
        Oh, please. AtD is horrible. I sure 
        didn't hope for this boring mess.

        Keith:
        Shit. I'm at p. 423 in this crazy novel, and I just don't agree 
        with the naysayers. Now that I've gotten past a brief stall 
        while I hosted a section, I can't put the goddamned thing 
        down. For me, reading it is sheer delight. Gravity's Rainbow 
        is always there for many re-readings, and I'm quite satisfied 
        with this new bit of Pynchon material. 

        Tore:
        Amen to that. Against the Day is all we could have hoped 
        for, and I for one look forward to rereading and getting lost 
        in this new world for years to come. My own reaction to this 
        gift can best be compared to that of the audience at a 
        certain lurid musical drama in "Mason & Dixon":

        "There are some catchy Tunes, and an Elephant, promis'd in 
        the first Act, which incredibly, at the very end of the Show, is 
        deliver'd. The audience sit stunn'd in the vacuous Purity of 
        not having been cheated."

FWIW, my elephant was delivered on pg 220. You have no idea how many loose
ends in the canon get tied up by the mere presence of Nickey Nookshaft. I mean,
Genghis Cohen alone. . . .

        And FWIW, I think AtD gets even better as the main action 
        shifts to Europe and Asia around p. 500, so you should have 
        an even more pleasurable and absorbing stretch ahead of you.

Particulary if you're into postal fraud and the alchemical implications of 
photography. And mayonnaise, lots and lots of mayonnaise. Perhaps 
it was the fates taunting Kit for his Bullwinkle-worthy puns, perhaps
there are even more [and awful-er] puns buried somewhere in the Usine 
Regionale a la Mayonnaise. I'm talkin' 'bout a whole . . . lotta . . . Mayo.

I take it, then, that Mr. Winkler is a Miracle Whip devotee---like Kajte?