Hint of Against The Day in Gravity's Rainbow?

[Mark Kohut]

I think from what Pynchon has said about his planned works from the
earliest that it is very likely he had Against the Day in mind as he
finished Gravity's Rainbow. I think you've
found some circumstantial evidence for that. I say Congrats.
I have also long believed, from some textual but highly circumstantial
evidence, that he started writing Against the Day when he had finished
GR. I think it likely
he worked on AtD and M & D during those long years until Vineland was
published. I think Vineland came to him new as he watched America
unfold and he stopped out of
the other two to write and publish it first.



On Sat, Sep 20, 2014 at 1:12 PM, Alex Nunez <penarecords at gmail.com> wrote:
> Apologies if this has been brought up before.
>
> While reading the story of Byron the Bulb in GR, I came across this passage
> which sounds like Pynchon giving a hint about his future work, Against The
> Day. Page 651 on my Vintage edition:
>
> "But here something odd happens. Yes, damned odd. The plan is to smash up
> Byron and send him back right there in the shop to cullet and batch--salvage
> the tungsten, of course--and let him be reincarnated in the glassblower's
> next project (a balloon setting out on a journey from the top of a white
> skyscraper)."
>
> The balloon obviously being the Chums and the white skyscraper representing
> Chicago and the World's Columbian Exposition.
>
> What do you all think?
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l