Fatherland / Maps / Against The Day

[Guy Ian Scott Pursey]

I also loved the fact that Fatherland had maps. But that was
pre-Pynchon...

I'm coming to the end of Against The Day now (I missed my New Year
deadline for those that remember) and have found myself reaching for an
atlas a lot during the second half of the book (esp. during Kit's
travels to and through the Tian Shan, etc). But I enjoy this
half-hearted research more than I would have done at the age when I read
Fatherland - it's nice to feel a book is directing you beyond itself,
sometimes even to the outside world.

Plus, can you imagine how many maps Against The Day would need?! And if
maps, why not a glossary? Or a bibliography? A-and picture inserts of
various period-and-therefore-no-longer-obtainable items?

On a semi-serious note, I have been thinking about making maps for some
of the sections of Against The Day, charting the travels of the
characters on certain pages... There's enough moving around in the book
to justify it. Anyone else thought about this? Or know of someone who's
already done it?

Some of the four-dimensional stuff might be a bit tricky...

Guy



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
Behalf Of Dave Monroe
Sent: 06 January 2009 01:17
To: Great Quail
Cc: The Whole Sick Crew
Subject: Re: Fatherland (1994)

On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 4:24 PM, Great Quail <quail at shipwrecklibrary.com>
wrote:

>> and one of the better alternate history novels I may add
>
> It had *maps*! Maps of Speer's oversized uber-Berlin! Who could argue
with a
> vaguely lackluster and predictable plot when it had maps?!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FatherlansUE64-ter.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fatherland.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatherland_(novel)