The phrase "Against The Day" in Mason & Dixon

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

           Mason nods, gazing past the little Harbor, out to Sea. 
           None of his business where Maskelyne goes, or 
           comes,---God let it remain so. The Stars wheel into 
           the blackness of the broken steep Hills guarding the 
           Mouth of the Valley. Fog begins to stir against the 
           Day swelling near. Among the whiten'd Rock Walls 
           of the Houses seethes a great Whisper of Living Voice.
           Mason & Dixon, pg 125

Dear Guy,
Well, your spelling is just fine, so you're already ahead of the curve. . . 

I'm going to give you my decidedly weird take on the phrase "Against the Day".
There is a focus on things happening in the dark in "The Crying of Lot 49", 
and in spite of the general levity of "Mason & Dixon", it is an often dark book 
as well. Against the Day concerns itself in large part with Illumination, in 
particular spiritual Illumination. The phrase "Against the Day" pops up in 
Mason & Dixon just as "single up all lines" also appears elsewhere
in OBA's Ouvre, I perceive Against the Day, with all its multiple plot 
resolutions  and multiple fairy-tale endings, about moving towards the light, 
with the light often pushing back. Kit ends up having gone to
Shambhala anyway, Jesse gets an "A" on his history test, Merle's
magic works. Crimes are solved, folks fall in love, usw. . . .

In The Crying of Lot 49, the central symbol is the muted posthorn, 
rendered in a style that is reminiscent of the sigils found in "The Key of
Solomon the King". The muted posthorn should send off a few reminders of 
the character "Miles" [there's one in both CoL49 and AtD] thus the notion of
Gabriel's horn with a mute, delaying the day of revelation. "Against the Day"
could be in reference to the background of the Day, like the "Golden Dawn"
that serves as the background for the T.W.I.T.s. But note the notion of 
resistance in "Fog begins to stir against the Day swelling near", yet another
attempt at stalling, perhaps preventing revelation. There is everywhere
in Pynchon's works a fear of too much light. There is a particularly fine 
passage in Gravity's Rainbow that expresses this terror of "The Light":

—Everything that comes out from CNS we have to file here, 
you see. It gets to be a damned nuisance after a while. 
Most of it's utterly useless. But you never know when they'll 
want something. Middle of the night, or during the worst part 
of an ultraviolet bombardment you know, it makes no 
difference to them back there.

—Do you ever get out much to . . . well, up to the Outer 
Level?

(A long pause in which the older operative stares quite 
openly, as several changes flow across her features—
amusement, pity, concern—until the younger one speaks 
again.) I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be—

—(Abruptly) I'm supposed to tell you, eventually, as part 
of the briefing.

—Tell me what?

—Just as I was told once. We hand it on, one generation 
to the next. (There is no piece of business plausible 
enough for her to find refuge in. We sense that this has 
not yet become routine for her. Out of decency now, she 
tries to speak quiettly, if not gently.) We all go up to the 
Outer Level, young man. Some immediately, others not 
for a while. But sooner or later everybody out here has to 
go Epidermal. No exceptions.

—Has to—

—I'm sorry.

—But isn't it . . . I thought it was only a—well, a level. A place 
you'd visit. Isn't it . . . ?

—Outlandish scenery, oh yes so did I—unusual formations, 
a peep into the Outer Radiance. But it's all of us, you see. 
Miliions of us. changed to interface, to horn, and no feeling, 
and silence.

—Oh, God. (A pause in which he tries to take it in—then, in 
panic, pushes it back: No—how can you say that—you can't 
feel the memory? The tug . . . we're in exile, we so have a 
home! (Silence from the other.) Back there! Not up at the 
interface. Back in the CNS!

—(Quietly) It's been a prevalent notion. Fallen sparks. 
Fragments of vessels broken at the Creation. And someday, 
somehow, before the end, a gathering back to home. But I tell 
you there is no such message, no such home—only the millions 
of last moments . . . no more. Our history is an aggregate of 
last moments.
Gravity's Rainbow  P150/151 V148, B173

Darkest heresy here, like that witch from Texas who told me not to 
go into the light. Pynchon's an expert on heresy, or didn't you know?
It's a boni-fied "Idee Fixe" for Tommy Boy. I think it's on account of 
family history, a topick of increasing importance as time warps our
enfant terrible into the guise of an elder.

At the end, the Chums "Fly towards Grace", yet I see Icarus as well.
Need I point out that "Fallen sparks. Fragments of vessels broken 
at the Creation" is Kabbalistic talk, a topick spiritual that Our Beloved
Author cites with alarming frequency, something OBA ties up with a 
pretty little pink bow with Against the Day's T.W.I.T.S??? He's as
forthright as Madame Eskimoff on the topic in his latest writings.
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Guy Ian Scott Pursey" <g.i.s.pursey at reading.ac.uk>
Hello all...

I don't normally write messages to this list - I tend to "lurk" - so
apologies if I'm breaking any rules (formatting or otherwise) in asking
this question:

Does the phrase "Against the Day" appear in Mason & Dixon?