Making sense of AtD’s fragmentary segments
For a book that travels so far and wide, the traveling itself is strangely told. Places are not separated by the distances, at least not distances crossed. Vehicles, whose retinue includes airships, navy destroyers disguised as passenger ships, manned torpedoes that buzz Venetian canals like vespas sawing through water on two-stroke fashion engines (Ciao! Ciao!), camels, horses, eagles (is that Mordor down below, Frodo? What is it you carry and that weighs upon your heart, so, Frodo?), not to mention time machines, are too imaginary to provide reliable transportation. What is the reader to make of all this?
I have intentionally avoided reading any reviews of the book, so as to plough through it on whatever strange connections my own head is capable of (a Rube Goldberg design, useful for traveing far as long as getting anywhere is not of any real consequence). And though I still believe that our characters are playing cards (I believe each family has four members in its suit, but those of you earlier in the book, help me) I’ve not yet checked out the Tarot deck to see if our characters’ descriptions match those of Tarot cards.
But there’s another realization creeping up on me (and ain’t this the distinct pleasure of reading a Pynchon novel? Those sneaking moments when you’re not sure whose reading whom, when author and reader seem to suddenly occupy the same head-space? Pynchon has a gift for engaging the reader to such a degree that the space between the novel and reader collapses into some strange zone of indeterminibility, the reading and the thinking now being one and the same, reader propelled forward by the sheer proximity of his own thoughts to the author’s fantastic prose…), and it’s that we’re still at the Chicago World’s Fair… Never left it folks.
By means I’m not certain of, we are making our way from pavilion to pavilion, as if in some weird Toy Story-Lord of the Rings odyssey set in a theme park featuring carnival rides, shooting galleries, Tarot readings, ferris wheels, balloon rides, Venetian gondolas, a hall of mirrors, Western saloons, bucket rides along cables and powered scooters and bicycles? A fantastic cartoon-like pursuit whose narratives bubble and froth with mythic as well as mystic force, but are enacted by a hapless and hopeless cast of marionnette dolls whose personalities include Darth Vader, Bilbo Baggins, Alice in Wonderland, Little Nemo, Houdini, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, Willy Wonka, the Wizard of Oz, Gandalf, and lord only knows who else…
Against the Day is at times incredibly unstable and uncertain, as if the book itself is a heaving, shaking, wheezing, and sputtering compendium of yarns unravelling, a Gargantuan rip-roaring roller coaster of a ride through frollicking revelries and reveries hoist on a petard un-tethered to the taut matrix of paranoia that structures Pynchon’s earlier efforts, manic and modern, fantastically filled with illusion and trickery, and simply howling with the pleasures of children given over to games and gibberish.
People, what have we done to ourselves?!
–Adrian Chan
Technorati tags: books, book reviews, pynchon, thomas pynchon,
January 24th, 2007 at 10:11 am
>I believe each family has four members in its suit,
Interesting idea of symmetry, I’ll keep it in mind going forward.
>the space between the novel and reader collapses into some strange zone of indeterminibility
Where are you when you’re reading? I think it’s the original definition of hyperspace.
>some weird Toy Story-Lord of the Rings odyssey set in a theme park
In my SoCal perspective, Disneyland is the Foundation myth.
Gotta go, Barak Obama is writing to me again, –SteelR
June 24th, 2007 at 8:22 am
bud light candle making 85
Hi! http://ailwnsw.com/374_0.html . Thanks!
June 24th, 2007 at 8:34 am
word searches 98
Hi! http://lwdkbhi.com/261_0.html . Thanks!
June 27th, 2007 at 12:04 am
what time is it 34
Hi! http://31.tuhckwog.info/39_0.html . Thanks!
June 27th, 2007 at 12:15 am
tablet pc 63
Hi! http://8.uwpahiwm.info/42_0.html . Thanks!
June 29th, 2007 at 9:01 am
census records laser level 59
Hi! http://asjsnizo.info/114_0.html . Thanks!
July 20th, 2007 at 5:01 am
james bond 56
Hi! http://likdxzau.biz/1419_0.html . Thanks!
July 30th, 2007 at 7:49 am
Music
Download music, movies, and satellite tv.
July 30th, 2007 at 8:09 am
Paid Surveys
Paid Surveys
July 31st, 2007 at 6:30 am
real estate investing
real estate investing
July 31st, 2007 at 2:45 pm
boys wearing panties
Against The Day ” Blog Archive ” Making sense of AtD’s fragmentary segments
August 2nd, 2007 at 6:10 am
home business
Make money with your own work at home business.
August 4th, 2007 at 9:21 am
video branding
use video branding to make money on YouTube.
August 13th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Inventors
Inventors
August 17th, 2007 at 6:48 am
affiliate rockstar status review
affiliate rockstar status review
August 17th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
PC Satellite TV Review - Free Report
PC Satellite TV Review - Free Report
August 17th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Glamour Modeling
all good stuff
August 20th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Fat Loss for Idiots
Fat Loss for Idiots
August 25th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Glamour Modeling Agency
hey great stuff
August 28th, 2007 at 5:26 am
Sex Enhancer Pills FREE TRIAL
Sex Enhancer Pills FREE TRIAL
August 29th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
xbox360
cheapxbox360 lists almost free deals on xbox 360 consoles . . .
August 30th, 2007 at 9:10 am
Affiliate Rockstar Status
Affiliate Rockstar Status
September 27th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
ebaywatchings
what the catch is
October 7th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Make Money Online
Paid Surveys, ebay, adsense,Yuwie
October 8th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
home online typing jobs
typing jobs at home
December 3rd, 2007 at 1:49 pm
888 software
It’s quiet to be babbled! The software is quickly single. The serious market drooled one woman obliquely. That hour is longingly desirable. That evidence has some given 888.
February 7th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
porn comics
March 9th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
$anchor$basketball Betting,final Four,final Four Betting,final Four Gambling,final Four Sports Book,final Four Sportsbook,march Madness,march Madness Betting,march Madness Gambling,march Madness Sports Book,march Madness Sportsbook,ncaa,ncaa Betting,…
$anchor$basketball Betting,final Four,final Four Betting,final Four Gambling,final Four Sports Book,final Four Sportsbook,march Madness,march Madness Betting,march Madness Gambling,march Madness Sports Book,march Madness Sportsbook,ncaa,ncaa Betting,nc…
March 14th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Milledgevillesportsgrid6733$anchor$basketball Betting,final Four,final Four Betting,final Four Gambling,final Four Sports Book,final Four Sportsbook,march Madness,march Madness Betting,march Madness Gambling,march Madness Sports Book,march Madness Sp…
Milledgevillesportsgrid6733$anchor$basketball Betting,final Four,final Four Betting,final Four Gambling,final Four Sports Book,final Four Sportsbook,march Madness,march Madness Betting,march Madness Gambling,march Madness Sports Book,march Madness Spor…