COL49 - Chap 2: San Narciso as a circuit board

[Robin Landseadel]

Against the Day is such a strange book. It failed to fulfill the  
anticipations and desires of so much of its audience, though I'm sure  
the sub-sector of Steampunk enthusiasts went wild for the loose, baggy  
monster. What struck me was how much of Against the Day turned out to  
be a series of riffs and rim-shots off the earlier books, none more so  
than The Crying of Lot 49—particularly in the realm of stamps, seals,  
signs and countersigns—though the family connections to Vineland run  
nearly as deep. I suspect that TRP has only so much time to spend on  
characters, he's often more interested in describing the set where the  
action is taking place than dwelling too much on the actors in that  
space.

I've often thought of OBA's outlook as Gaian, emerging from the same  
"Flash" shared by Mucho & Zoyd. Having one's doors of perception  
chemically blasted open often led to witnessing the essential  
aliveness of our planet and that attitude is frequently expressed in  
Pynchon's writings. Mother Earth—Gaia—is as much a character in  
Pynchon's writings as anybody else, seemingly more so in Against the  
Day.

In any case, Pynchon always seems more interested in systems analysis  
than in character development—wonder when the complete Bomarc/Boeing  
writings of TRP will be published [because you know they will]. The  
technologies on parade in Against the Day struck me as a wonder,  
sublime antiquities and curios from another dimension.

On May 12, 2009, at 7:10 AM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

> Can anyone come think of an example from ATD, where humans are  
> physically subsumed by technology (not just killed or blown up by it)?

Kit was seduced/subsumed by dive-bombing. But not completely. . .

On May 12, 2009, at 9:34 AM, Joseph Tracy wrote:

> As far as subsumed, what about the sub-desertine  craft the HMSF  
> Saksaul. Where the front line troops of the empire are looking under  
> the desert for oIl or Shambhala whichever comes first, if there is  
> any difference.
> Also what about the despair of the time ravelers who know the  
> future, can travel in time but can think of no place better to go  
> than the scene of the crime.
>
> As far a s riveting technology I thought the photographic process ,  
> the various uses of spar, and the Tesla techno-dreams-come-true were  
> as good as it gets.