Against the Day

[Mark Kohut]

Rich,

Pynchon's vision is hedgehog-like, in Berlin's famous distinction for
writers and thinkers. Yes,
his vision of history is of a piece. Because history is.

But, Against the Day is incredibly richer in that vision; the layered
meanings of both sets of Chums,
US and European history from 1800's thru the interregnum after the war to
end all wars.
V is a comparative outline.

We still here have hardly explored all the detail, the Chums full meaning.
TRP's incredible, incredible
playing out of this vision in math, Vectorism squabble....

I still have not had a good encounter with anyone when I argue 'imaginary
numbers' in ATD, are part of his incredible
metaphoric vision of where modernity sorta started...

Mark

On Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 10:40 AM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> But AtD doesnt seem that different from the vision of history as depicted
> in V/GR and M&D--I see it as one big continuum from the slave/mercantile
> fetishes of the 18th century to the early years of the power of the nation
> state to its logical end game in nuclear annihilation and/or control, BE
> being a more easily digested post-script.
> For me, Pynchon's voice is what keeps me reading him.
>
> rich
>
> On Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 7:18 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> It is just as much the great overarching vision of history and that
>> perspective on the characters
>> that makes this a great novel.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 26, 2019 at 12:08 PM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> something tells me that the whole point of it all is the side-view, the
>>> long-ish asides and explications on quite a range of different matters
>>> and
>>> lightings (literally). the characters aren't important, it's the voice,
>>> reader.
>>> do we care so much for Webb? even the union doesnt show up for his
>>> funeral.
>>> Or Reef's sexual exploits or the wondrous fashions that Dally or Yashmeen
>>> inhabit? or why apparently a converted Christer Foley kills Scarsdale
>>> Vibe?
>>> Or the long and tortuous travels through  Mexico or the Balkans or East
>>> Asia, filled with terrain hardships and every type of liquer known to
>>> man.
>>> It all becomes a blur and even in the latter parts of the Against the Day
>>> section, one could detect a weariness even from the author, filled with
>>> earnest hombres and spunky cowgirls and showtunes. So, let's make things
>>> easier and tie things up--the Chums meet their girl Chums and Deuce
>>> Kindred
>>> and Lake Traverse remain terrible people and not very interesting even in
>>> post-war LA where even  the used and past-life who know who contritions
>>> of
>>> Lew leads to a lazy rape and a lazy section.
>>> I could go on. Erect penises and anarchist all around! snore
>>> But to reiterate, its those side jaunts where nothing happens but the
>>> important work is done. That, to me, is the joy of the book. I even
>>> picked
>>> up the Vintage UK version (200 and some odd pages more of that voice
>>> Pynchon from the original. ha!).
>>> The funny thing is I could've sworn to a number of things that happened
>>> in
>>> the book that I remembered, that on this re-read never happened at all.
>>> it
>>> was as if time was the only real measure, the other axis we know and love
>>> and touch were not. go figure.
>>> So you can count of many fingers and dimensions the many doublings,
>>> couplings and symmetrics as you can find and it will take many an hour to
>>> detect them all. I'll leave that to the critics.
>>> I still dont know what an eigenvalue is and I probably never will
>>>
>>> rich
>>> --
>>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>>
>>