User:Trialsanderrors/List of references in Against the Day
| Author | Thomas Pynchon |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Penguin Press |
Publication date | 2006 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | |
| ISBN | 1-59420-120-X |
Abstruse topics in Against the Day, a novel released in 2006 by Thomas Pynchon, are numerous.
Historical events
[edit]Steven Moore, in a Washington Post book review, suggests, "A good warm-up exercise for reading this is the 'Robber Barons and Rebels' chapter in Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States; Pynchon shares Zinn's populist viewpoint."[1]
- Macedonian Question
- World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893
- World War I
U.S. labor history
[edit]See also: Labor unions in the United States, for a history of U.S. labor relations in the period
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Mexican Revolution
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Geographical and temporal locations
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Years of the narrative
[edit]As a work of historical fiction, the book often refers to events no longer widely known. These Wikipedia pages mention and link to events the narrative may mention (the book is unclear as to when the narrative actually ends; most reviewers say it ends not long after World War I):
| 1893 | 1894 | 1895 | 1896 | 1897 | 1898 | 1899 | 1900 | 1901 | 1902 | |
| 1903 | 1904 | 1905 | 1906 | 1907 | 1908 | 1909 | 1910 | 1911 | 1912 | |
| 1913 | 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 | 1920 | 1921 | 1922 |
Geography
[edit]One of the underlying and intermingled themes of Against the Day is the irrelevancy of time and of place.[2] Likewise, John Clute notes that Pynchon "conveys sense of place with such astonishing intensity that his Chicago and New York and London and Venice and places east seem too dense for one world to hold them, for his descriptions of cities read like descriptions of their absolute 'eternal' substance."[3] Events that occur within the book regularly relate to events a world away, or events in imaginary space, and a significant amount of the action occurs in the air, in balloons floating above and looking over places in time. [4] Relevant locations include:
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North America |
Non-existent
Europe and Asia |
Asia Africa Other
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† (with speculation about 1902's relationship to other times)
Abstruse subjects
[edit]Stuart Kelly, in Scotland on Sunday writes that Pynchon's use of false scientific ideas of the 1893-1920 period has a thematic purpose:[5]
- Pynchon has a lot of mordant fun with the scientific theories of the day. [...] [T]he red herrings and hopeless optimism of a bygone era are used to throw the coming darkness into stark relief.
- Pynchon ransacks popular literature [...] not to parody it, but to contrast the happy endings and averted catastrophes with the historical reality.
Roger Gathman, in the Austin American-Statesman warns, "Be prepared for talk of eigenvalues and Hermittian [sic] operators, which you won't understand and aren't expected to."[6]
Science and mathematics
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Explosives and explosive events
[edit]There is a wide range of discussion in the book about the use and science of explosives.[7] This includes discussion set in the Western landscapes where individual members of the Traverse family each have differing relationships to and use of explosives to the landmines and incendiary devices that beset the Chums of Chance on their travels.
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The mystical and the mythical
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Other
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Abstruse words
[edit]In this book and others, Pynchon often uses words that would send nearly every reader to a dictionary, although many of these words are not in typical dictionaries[citation needed]:
- absquatulate — v: run away; usually implies taking something or somebody along
- cataplexy — n : sudden loss of muscle power following a strong emotional stimulus
- embonpoint — n: the plump or fleshy part of a person's body (page 25)
- fulgurescence — n : an emission in flashes or sparks, like lightning
- gamomania — n: extreme desire to be married (page 432)
- gynecophobia — n: fear of women (page 501)
- mephitically — adv: resembling a mephitis — an offensive smell or stench; poisonous or foul-smelling gas emitted from the earth (page 129)
- mouchard — n: police spy (page 560)
- mousmée — a type of hydrangea flower (page 560)
- xanthochroid — adj: blonde, blonde hair - a Greek neologism
References
[edit]- ^ [1] Moore, Steven, "The Marxist Brothers: A long-awaited work from the elusive cult novelist", review of Against the Day in Washington Post Book World, November 19, 2006, page BW10, accessed November 28, 2006
- ^ "Dream On", Liesl Schillinger, New York Review of Books (2006).
- ^ [2] Clute, John, "Excessive Candour: Aubade, Poor Dad", Sci-Fi Weekly, November 27, 2006, accessed November 29, 2006
- ^ See Schillinger.
- ^ [3]Kelly, Stuart, "Mystery man's last hurrah", review in Scotland on Sunday, the Sunday newspaper of The Scotsman November 26, 2006, accessed November 28, 2006
- ^ [4] Gathman, Roger, Austin American-Statesman, November 19, 2006accessed November 28, 2006
- ^ [5] Seligman, Craig, "Pynchon's First Novel in 10 Years Has Sex, Math, Explosives", review of Against the Day at Web site of Bloomberg News, article dated November 20, 2006, accessed November 26, 2006