Against...the Day

[Mark Kohut]

Pynchon's title would be a marvelous whole chapter entry in Empson's *Seven
Types of Ambiguity*, meaning richness of associative meanings, explored in
that classic in great poets. Browse in it just a little at least, I urge
all. I would like to know how, in the way* Mindless Pleasures *became*
Gravity's Rainbow, *all the associations congealed as he wrote* Against the
Day* and became the title. But I never will. When TRP allowed an allusion
to himself, his work, on *The John Laroquette Show *back in the day [a
resonance itself], this probable work-in-progress was entitled *Pandemonium
of the Sun,-- IF *it was an actual allusion, not just a general joke about
his work. That phrase comes from Milton's *Paradise Lost*, I believe and is
repeated allusively in Cormac McCarthy's* Blood Meridian. *But one can see
it fitting this sun-filled novel.

I once looked up 'day' and 'against' in the OED, as I'm sure you did or
will. The associations are overwhelming. The 'workday' meaning of day is at
heavy play early in AtD--and throughout. It is used about the Chums and
Lew, esp. Enough so that Lew can be said to step outside the day at one
point. And then Lew meets Traverse and "it's [more] about work" as Alice is
always saying --that whole plot line thru to the end. The strikes, the
anarchism, etc., basically the exploitation and hard dangerous life of
workers that the Second Industrial Revolution, starting around 1870,
wrought. Scarsdale Vibe is there early for a reason. This is
chronologically aligned with that state of siege balloon episode Pynchon
links to that date.

it also connotes daylight sez the OED since "Let there be Light"  was the
first day (vs "always night" and dark). It also connotes light itself (as
in light of day). Remember the Lightarians and I repeat "Let there be
Light" and light across the ranges and even, sorta, "the sun is
God'--Turner. Photography needs
light to work--and develops in darkness per Laura.

The Day of Righteousness echoes; Day of Wrath; Day of Judgment--God's light
on things.
Dawn stands for day since long ago. A couple major scholars have wondered
about the use of Day re The Enlightenment in the meanings of Against the
Day, in such as the dawn of Science, the dawn of Enlightenment. A new "day"
in history.

I also suggest rambling again in all of the meanings of 'Against' in the
OED...what amazed me was the
Iceland Spar-like bi-polar meanings....to store up "against the day"
meaning 'for'. This is an older meaning, the kind P favors and echoed in
the remarks on the KJV here and is much more extensive than I ever knew. It
is poised ambiguously "against" the modern meaning per Morris of 'in
opposition'.

That actual Biblical quotation was used a fair amount during the US civil
rights ear, by MLKjr, I think and in books about that period.

And, yes, remember the visitors from the future trying to tell the world
something against "it' happening. And the way the book ends. [re the
future]

I am also reminded in this whole context of TRP saying in a letter
something to this effect, if I remember right: "it's all right there on the
page".