What was that _Against the Day_ about? Cowart provides one answer worth reading

[alice malice]

Rich asked. And I think this is a good question. And I also think
there are many very good answers to it. The best, as far as I've read,
is Cowart's "Pynchon, Genealogy, History: Against the Day." And this
shouldn't surprize anyone who has been reading P-Industry Productions.
Cowart is one of the best readers of Pynchon. And this big book is
perfect for Cowart. Now, he does get Nietzsche &/or Foucault, and this
may turn some people off, but if one truly wants an excellent and
satisfying answer to the question, Cowart provides it.

But readers who find the overall point of Against the
Day elusive may better tolerate the longueurs of Pynchon’s sixth novel if
they recognize the technique as that of the genealogist. Only incidentally
interested in routine historical iconoclasm, Pynchon undertakes a radical
reframing of essential questions about the past. BernardDuyfhuizen,
characterizing
‘‘power and the movement of history’’ as ‘‘a pervasive theme in
Pynchon’s writing,’’ notes a reversal here. Where ‘‘usually he shrouds the
sources of power in many layers of governmental or corporate bureaucracy
so that its effects aremainly felt while its origins remain hidden,’’ Pynchon
now represents power as something more than the faceless beˆte noire of
paranoids everywhere.7 The author means to turn inside out the way his
readers think about and understand power, its manifestations in discourse,
and its workings over historical time.

You can fins tghis brilliant essay online, free. Give it a shot. I
talso goes to our recent discussions of power and conspiracy.
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l