AtDTDA (3) Anarchism/Postal fraud 81-84

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

Going back a little, to a topic near and dear to my heart. The chapter that 
includes the 4th of July picnic/IED demonstration contains many bits of 
what could be called "Tristero", though the context provided in Against the 
Day offers many different types of distribution of communication within 
anarchist culture. Although I've found no "Tristero" in AtD (in the limited 
sense of seeing the word "Tristero" on the page), all the spoor of what was 
labeled "Tristero" in COL49 appears throughout AtD. 

Starting on 82, we are dragged into the life and opinions of Veikko Rautavaara:

-Veikko was a veteran of the Cour d'Alene bullpens and the strike in Cripple 
-Creek for an eight-hour day. He had quickly become known to all levels of the 
-law up here, being a particular favorite of state militia, who liked to see how 
-much pounding he could take. AtD 82

If anyone would desire to use underground communication systems on
accout of their (justified) paranoia, it would be Veikko Rautavaara.

"Chumps of Choice" sez:

-Neddie says “Viekko” is a rather common name in Finland. “Rautavaara,” however, 
-has a number of meanings. In Finnish, “Rauta” means “iron,” and “Vaara,” “hills” 
-and “danger.” Taken in context with the story’s obsession with currents of 
-light and electricity, and now the theme of mining, explosives, mercury 
-sickness, and the fact that uranium (the anti-stone?) was found near Telluride, 
-the name Rautavaara seems “charged” to me.

-The two men meet. Rautavaara, who sees little difference between life under the 
-deposed Russian Tsar and American capitalism, is in a bad mood. He’s received a 
-postcard from his sister in Finland, a minneskort, (a Swedish word, not 
-Finnish, and Finland’s other language of conquest) which is stamped and franked 
-with pictures of stamps and postmarks, since the Russians won’t allow the Finns 
-to use Finnish stamps anymore.

-It’s another reference to photography – images made from silver and light, real 
-but not real. Change is relentless.

-Webb and Rautavaara are meeting on this sizzling Fourth of July morning to blow 
-up a railroad bridge. A description of the preparation of the charge, the fuse 
-and attachment of the dynamite to the bridge struts follows. Webb notices a 
-hawk looking down on them as they work (like the Inconvenience, 
-perhaps? Another up-down, down-up reflection .

http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/01/dance-of-anarchy-and-change.html

In "The Crying of Lot 49", Oedipa Maas makes a grail quest out of tracking down 
a single unauthorized mail carrier and its related acts of misdirection and
resistance to authority. In "Against the Day", I'm making a grail quest for
postal systems that are undisturbed by the prevailing anarchy, a letter
(or any other sort of communication) that is not toched by echos of COL49.
By making this "False Memory", this "Memory of a Memory" a "Minneskort",
the author is returning to a trope found throughout COL49. By naming his 
"scurvhamite" postal system Trystero/Tristero the author partially enables the 
name W.A.S.T.E. and postal drops disguised as trash cans. An evil little pun, if 
you like, that ties into "Maxwell's Demon" and is very much related to the double 
edged meaning of the word "Minneskort", a term more likely to be in use right 
now in the realm of computers and clearly pointing in the general direction
of communication systems:

http://www.pixmania.com/se/se/minneskort/sony/49/4/marque.html

-At the moment, however, Webb noticed that Veikko had been sitting reading over 
-and over to himself a withered postcard from Finland, a troubled look on his 
-face, a slow flush gathering around his eyes.

-"Look. These aren't real stamps here," Veikko said. "They are pictures of 
-stamps. The Russians no longer allow Finnish stamps, we have to use Russian 
-ones. These postmarks? They're not real either. Pictures of postmarks. This 
-one, August fourteen, 1900, was the last day we could use our own stamps for 
-overseas mail."

-"So this is a postcard with a picture of what a postcard used to look like 
-before the Russians. That's what 'Minneskort' means?"

-"Memory card. A memory of a memory." It was a card from his sister back in 
-Finland. "Nothing in particular. They censor everything. Nothing that would 
-get anybody in trouble. Family news. My crazy family." He gestured toward 
-Webb with the vodka canteen. (AtD, 84)

-Dear Mike, it said, how are you? Just thought I'd drop you a note. How's 
-your book coming? Guess that's all for now. See you at The Scope. 
COL49 page 39

(pages 81-84 of AtD appear in this pre-release extract posted by the Gaurdian) 

http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,,1950566,00.html


>From the Against the Day Wiki:

-Additionally, the front and back covers and spine depict a "picture" of the 
-book, Against the Day (note how the seal is broken, and the cover depicted 
-contains fine details such as edge-rubbing and even small tears to the dust 
-jacket at lower front edge).
-This is another instance of a doubling/layering of the real and unreal, the 
-actual and represented worlds, the past and the present. But notably, also, the 
-cover is similar to the postcard Veikko receives from his sister in Finland (p. 
-84), upon which both the stamps and postmarks are "not real . . . pictures of 
-postmarks" (which had been invalidated by the Russians). Webb calls it a 
-Minneskort, "a postcard with a picture of what a postcard used to look like . . 
-. ." "Memory card," Veikko clarifies, "a memory of a memory."
-In yet another instance of the doubling motif, the first edition of Against the 
-Day was issued with two different bindings beneath the dustjacket: One variant 
-has a light green back over khaki boards, and the other variant has a red back 
-over cream-colored boards. At this point, it still isn't clear whether this 
-variation in the bindings is a simple matter of the availability of binding 
-material, or whether it - like the complex dust jacket - ties into themes in 
-the  book.

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

For what it's worth, I own two copies of the Green/Khaki binding and saw a 
Red/Tan cover at Logos Books, in Santa Cruz CA. about two weeks ago.