Against the Day: the first 100 pages
So I haven't gotten as far as I initially anticipated I would. I went back and reread the first thirty pages after getting home from school and caught oh-so-many things that I had initially missed while reading in the throes of Pynchonia...or some kind of Pynchon-induced delusional state.
[warning: spoilers ahead]
Anyway, the first 100 pages. Yes. The World's Fair is kind of just a blip on the radar of the book at this point. It happened...it was white and shiny...it's over. You move back in time and follow the arcs of several characters before blazing on into the future as their children (Merle's Dally, who you meet at the fair and Webb's Kit, a young engineer who you meet out in Colorado working for Tesla and about to be sent up east to school (Yale) by none other than the legendary financier Vibe. This is especially interesting because Vibe was conspiring against Tesla's free energy project during the fair by commissioning Professor Heino Vanderjuice. Vanderjuice works at Yale and so you kind of anticipate a meeting between Kit and Heino on the horizon. Other connections? Well, Webb and Merle have met up. Merle enjoying his current incarnation as a photographer/alchemist (related, in his mind, by the notion that he goes about drawing light out of metal in both sciences). Webb, an anarchist, was attracted to Merle's shack on the frontier by the smell of the Nitro and was particularily intrigued by the notion of the Anti-Stone (the antithesis to the Philosopher's-Stone that is "supposed to really mean God, or the Secret of Happiness, or Union with the All, so forth. Chinese talk" (ATD 77).). So basically put, all of the character arcs connect:
The crew of the Hydrogen Skyship Inconvenience introduced in the very beginning of ATD studied under Vanderjuice. They are members of the Chums of Chance (to be explained more later...think some kind of aeronautical Hardy Boys series...AKA Team Zissou (for Wes Anderson (The Life Aquatic) fans). I will refer to them as The Inconvenience from here on out. If the membership changes, and this is "important" to my reading of ATD, this will be duly noted.
But yes. The most complicted aspect of the plot at this point is keeping the temporal structure straight. The plot loops backwards three times retracing the narrative arcs of three characters and then it moves forwards, I assume. I may try to plot this out at a later point, but here's the character web:
- The Inconvenience studied under Vanderjuice.
- Vanderjuice was friends with Merle back in the days of the excitement over Aether studies.
- After the fallout of Aether studies, Merle and his young daughter, Dally, started roaming the country and taking pictures for their dinner.
- The fair fell kind of in the middle of their roamings. Merle catches up with Vanderjuice at the fair.
- Vanderjuice has "sold out" or turned to the dark side. He is working to thwart Tesla's free energy model for financier and ultra-capitalist Scarsdale Vibe.
Then, AFTER the fair:
- Anarchist Webb and Merle meet up in Colorado.
- Webb's kid, Kit, "sells out" to go study engineering at Yale on Vibe's tab.
- Merle's kid, Dally, hasn't done much yet except grow up. No run-ins with any of Webb's children. It's hinted that she wants to go and meet her mother (who ran off with a magician and is now comfortably settled in New York with a dozen or so of Dally's half-siblings).
As for the Lew storyline...it's kind of unresolved at this point. I mean, you've met him, he's been spying on people at the World's fair for a detective agency doing counter-terrorism observation at the fair (the terrorist threat here consists of the Anarchists - organized labor). Lew has a very strange...situation involving some great unknown sin. Anyway, he's made an honorary guest member of the Chums of Chance by the Inconvenience before getting relocated down to a new branch of WCI (the detective agency) in Colorado. So you get the sense that things in Colorado will get especially interesting as the story goes on, in large part due to the fact that Tesla's research is literally CHARGING the landscape. Basically, weird stuff is going on. Lots of electric research...weird lights...oh yes. That brings me back to my pet themes: polyphony and light.
My reading of the text focuses very heavily on these two themes. I believe I may have mentioned the polyphony in the "first thirty pages" entry and maybe the light, but I'll do a more in depth entry on these themes later. If you are reading, I'm talking about the voices/lights from above in particular, and other little incidents like Pugnax's polyphonic bark and....hm....what else...there's another instance....something about talking in Colorado - eh, I'll get around to it later (I'm eager to keep reading). And as for the verdict thus far:
Plot: INCREDIBLY intriguing. Kind of complex...but not too much. There's an awful lot going on, but everything connects. I started character profiles in a notebook but I'm kind of falling behind. Hmm...well....that's what rereads are for.
The writing style itself: Uh, slightly simpler Pynchon.
Favorite passages: Those relating to the character's "illuminations" and "enLIGHTenments" - basically when people are said to see through things. They are incredible passages - definitely goosebump and cold shiver inducing. Fabulous.
Ranking amongst other Pynchon novels? Um...Second. (Keep in mind I've only just begun). For other Pynchon fans reading, this is where I stand:
1. Gravity's Rainbow
2. Against the Day [as of now, only about 1/10th of the way through the book]
3. The Crying of Lot 49
4. V.
5. Mason and Dixon
6. Vineland
(the Slow Learner stories fit in there, but I'm only ranking novels here...)
But yeah...back to the reading! I'll write again when I reach 250.
[warning: spoilers ahead]
Anyway, the first 100 pages. Yes. The World's Fair is kind of just a blip on the radar of the book at this point. It happened...it was white and shiny...it's over. You move back in time and follow the arcs of several characters before blazing on into the future as their children (Merle's Dally, who you meet at the fair and Webb's Kit, a young engineer who you meet out in Colorado working for Tesla and about to be sent up east to school (Yale) by none other than the legendary financier Vibe. This is especially interesting because Vibe was conspiring against Tesla's free energy project during the fair by commissioning Professor Heino Vanderjuice. Vanderjuice works at Yale and so you kind of anticipate a meeting between Kit and Heino on the horizon. Other connections? Well, Webb and Merle have met up. Merle enjoying his current incarnation as a photographer/alchemist (related, in his mind, by the notion that he goes about drawing light out of metal in both sciences). Webb, an anarchist, was attracted to Merle's shack on the frontier by the smell of the Nitro and was particularily intrigued by the notion of the Anti-Stone (the antithesis to the Philosopher's-Stone that is "supposed to really mean God, or the Secret of Happiness, or Union with the All, so forth. Chinese talk" (ATD 77).). So basically put, all of the character arcs connect:
The crew of the Hydrogen Skyship Inconvenience introduced in the very beginning of ATD studied under Vanderjuice. They are members of the Chums of Chance (to be explained more later...think some kind of aeronautical Hardy Boys series...AKA Team Zissou (for Wes Anderson (The Life Aquatic) fans). I will refer to them as The Inconvenience from here on out. If the membership changes, and this is "important" to my reading of ATD, this will be duly noted.
But yes. The most complicted aspect of the plot at this point is keeping the temporal structure straight. The plot loops backwards three times retracing the narrative arcs of three characters and then it moves forwards, I assume. I may try to plot this out at a later point, but here's the character web:
- The Inconvenience studied under Vanderjuice.
- Vanderjuice was friends with Merle back in the days of the excitement over Aether studies.
- After the fallout of Aether studies, Merle and his young daughter, Dally, started roaming the country and taking pictures for their dinner.
- The fair fell kind of in the middle of their roamings. Merle catches up with Vanderjuice at the fair.
- Vanderjuice has "sold out" or turned to the dark side. He is working to thwart Tesla's free energy model for financier and ultra-capitalist Scarsdale Vibe.
Then, AFTER the fair:
- Anarchist Webb and Merle meet up in Colorado.
- Webb's kid, Kit, "sells out" to go study engineering at Yale on Vibe's tab.
- Merle's kid, Dally, hasn't done much yet except grow up. No run-ins with any of Webb's children. It's hinted that she wants to go and meet her mother (who ran off with a magician and is now comfortably settled in New York with a dozen or so of Dally's half-siblings).
As for the Lew storyline...it's kind of unresolved at this point. I mean, you've met him, he's been spying on people at the World's fair for a detective agency doing counter-terrorism observation at the fair (the terrorist threat here consists of the Anarchists - organized labor). Lew has a very strange...situation involving some great unknown sin. Anyway, he's made an honorary guest member of the Chums of Chance by the Inconvenience before getting relocated down to a new branch of WCI (the detective agency) in Colorado. So you get the sense that things in Colorado will get especially interesting as the story goes on, in large part due to the fact that Tesla's research is literally CHARGING the landscape. Basically, weird stuff is going on. Lots of electric research...weird lights...oh yes. That brings me back to my pet themes: polyphony and light.
My reading of the text focuses very heavily on these two themes. I believe I may have mentioned the polyphony in the "first thirty pages" entry and maybe the light, but I'll do a more in depth entry on these themes later. If you are reading, I'm talking about the voices/lights from above in particular, and other little incidents like Pugnax's polyphonic bark and....hm....what else...there's another instance....something about talking in Colorado - eh, I'll get around to it later (I'm eager to keep reading). And as for the verdict thus far:
Plot: INCREDIBLY intriguing. Kind of complex...but not too much. There's an awful lot going on, but everything connects. I started character profiles in a notebook but I'm kind of falling behind. Hmm...well....that's what rereads are for.
The writing style itself: Uh, slightly simpler Pynchon.
Favorite passages: Those relating to the character's "illuminations" and "enLIGHTenments" - basically when people are said to see through things. They are incredible passages - definitely goosebump and cold shiver inducing. Fabulous.
Ranking amongst other Pynchon novels? Um...Second. (Keep in mind I've only just begun). For other Pynchon fans reading, this is where I stand:
1. Gravity's Rainbow
2. Against the Day [as of now, only about 1/10th of the way through the book]
3. The Crying of Lot 49
4. V.
5. Mason and Dixon
6. Vineland
(the Slow Learner stories fit in there, but I'm only ranking novels here...)
But yeah...back to the reading! I'll write again when I reach 250.
posted by Cate | 8:15 AM
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