Against The Day: the first 30 pages
Wow, so starting Against the Day is an intimidating and wonderful experience. I cracked open the book and automatically plunged into the Pynchon sea. Dogs reading Henry James...it was peculiar. Definite flashback to Mason and Dixon there. But yeah, it's shaping up to be an experience. I find myself getting lost in the book because I'm only able to read it in bursts at the moment - being on campus, and it being rather cold outside.
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to being able to go home at two and enjoy even a few hours of irresponsibility. Pynchon. Starcraft. Oh yes.
I have a feeling that there will be vastly more Pynchoning than Starcrafting, just...the book is incredible. The main thing that's been shaking me up is the continual mentioning of energies and multiplicities - the chorus of voices from above, the dog's polyphonic bark. But the energies are what really get me. I shivered, and not just because of the cold, as I sat out on the quad overlooking the capitol building listening to Phillip Glass on my iPod and reading about these energies that people feel moving about them and around them...and then, in the outlaying shadowlands surrounding the Fair, when Miles solves the card trick...this killed me. I seriously read it about six times:
"'Sometimes, Miles with a strangely apprehensive not in his voice, ' these peculiar feelings will surround me, Lindsay...like the electricity coming on - as if I can see everything just as clear as day, how...how everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though. Pretty soon I'm just back to tripping over my feet again'" (ATD 24).
That is definitely up there with the barometric pressure exchange from TCL49. Definitely. I'm off to read a bit before my undergraduate lecture course...being a TA is rough stuff when you've got the new Pynchon in your arms.
I'll update when I get to page 100. So this afternoon. Yeah.
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to being able to go home at two and enjoy even a few hours of irresponsibility. Pynchon. Starcraft. Oh yes.
I have a feeling that there will be vastly more Pynchoning than Starcrafting, just...the book is incredible. The main thing that's been shaking me up is the continual mentioning of energies and multiplicities - the chorus of voices from above, the dog's polyphonic bark. But the energies are what really get me. I shivered, and not just because of the cold, as I sat out on the quad overlooking the capitol building listening to Phillip Glass on my iPod and reading about these energies that people feel moving about them and around them...and then, in the outlaying shadowlands surrounding the Fair, when Miles solves the card trick...this killed me. I seriously read it about six times:
"'Sometimes, Miles with a strangely apprehensive not in his voice, ' these peculiar feelings will surround me, Lindsay...like the electricity coming on - as if I can see everything just as clear as day, how...how everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though. Pretty soon I'm just back to tripping over my feet again'" (ATD 24).
That is definitely up there with the barometric pressure exchange from TCL49. Definitely. I'm off to read a bit before my undergraduate lecture course...being a TA is rough stuff when you've got the new Pynchon in your arms.
I'll update when I get to page 100. So this afternoon. Yeah.
posted by Cate | 10:03 AM
2 Comments:
Hi
Rene asked me to comment, but you are intimidating!
Following some leads in your blog I googled to http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/718.html to get an idea of the subject; which reminded me of Pullman's, His Dark Materials. A fair amount of Pullman's Trilogy (beginning with "Northern Lights" in the British Edition) involves a man "poking a hole" in the arctic to travel to other universes/worlds. Interesting. Don't know if Pullman knew Symmes or not. Here's a Wiki article for Pullman here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials.
Richard
I am shocked that Pynchon covers so wide a range of topics in a single book. I am also shocked that it included passages in "your area" of study, and especialy one that we were talking about recently, (I even bought the Narrative of Pym in Virginia last week!).
So my interpretation of the white figure in Pym was at least plausible... that perhaps it represented the limit of an experience, (aka "what was knowable"), as opposed to theories about it representing "the God figure?"
I must admit, however, that it is a bit confusing to me, never having read Pynchon or Poe's Narrative.
Richard read your blog and I believe has written you a comment. Your blog is very interesting!
Mom
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