The phrase "Against The Day" in Mason & Dixon

[David Morris]

Not surprisingly, Pynchon uses this phrase in different ways,
especially in AtD.  The usage in MD pg 123 seems to mean "in
opposition to" the coming light of day.  "Opposition" to the light is
akin to "holding up for examination or comparison" but with critical
differences.  I think he uses the phrase both ways in different
places.

But the meaning in MD pg 683 is more a time usage.  I don't think
Laura's "enlightenment" works.  The sentence is a bit complex, but it
refers to their holding on to a hope of possible return in the future,
not what seems their inevitable "[not] make all come right."  And this
hope will be maintained "till the Moment they must pass over the Crest
of the Savage Mountain," a point of no return.

David Morris

On Jan 23, 2008 4:34 PM,  <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
> p. 683 (in part):
>
> " ... yet, whilst they bide in this Realm of the Penny-foolish and Pound-idiotick, till the Moment they must pass over the Crest of the Savage Mountain, does their remain to them, contrary to Reason, against the Day, a measurable chance, to turn, to go back out of no more than Stubbornness, and somehow make all come right ..."
>
> "Day" seems to refer to "enlightenment" in this context.
>
> Later on this same page, the phrase "against the low-lit Day" is used, and TRP also uses the phrase "against the sky" a number of times.  The way he uses these phrases suggests (to me, anyway) that "against the day" means something akin to "holding up for examination or comparison" to the "light" or "enlightenment."  More in keeping with Robin's "light" interpretation than the OED "storage" usages.
>
> Laura
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: 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
> >
>
>