Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

Against the Day Title

2006-11-30T05:37:32Z

Budparr: /* Biblical connotations */

'''Note: please keep this analysis general and spoiler-free.'''

==Other books of the same title==

''Against the Day'' is also the title of a book by Michael Cronin, dealing with an alternate history of World War II.

==Biblical connotations==

In his review of ''Against the Day'' in the ''Wall Street Journal'', Alexander Theroux (author of [http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FDarconvilles-Cat-Alexander-Theroux%2Fdp%2F0805043659&tag=hyperartspynchon&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325 ''Darconville's Cat''] and the upcoming [http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FLaura-Warholic-Intellectual-Alexander-Theroux%2Fdp%2F1560977981%2Fsr%3D11-1%2Fqid%3D1164652830&tag=hyperartspynchon&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325 ''Laura Warholic; or The Sexual Intellectual'']) traces the title of Pynchon's novel back to the Bible, 2 Peter 3:7.:

:(5) For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water, by the word of God;

:(6) by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

:(7) but the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved '''against the day''' of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

:(8) But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

(Source: [http://www.spcm.org/english/ASB/B61C003.htm American Standard Bible])

Theroux's review can be found in [http://online.wsj.com/home/us The Wall Street Journal], November 24, 2006, Page W8. (The website is only accessible for subscribers).

'''Romans 2:5'''

"Against the Day" is a fairly common phrase and probably not limited to one meaning, but this passage from the King James Bible is particularly resonant, especially considering the great amount of religious and pseudo-religious imagery in the book:

The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans 2:5 "But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath ''against the day'' of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God" (King James Bible)

The bookends of the word "wrath" around "against the day" make this particularly suggestive of judgement day or the day of wrath. The passages around this one and around Matthew: 6:34 where Webb's "Sufficient unto the day" (p.96) appears dwell on judgement: "Judge not, that ye be not judged. 7:2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."

==The themes of the book==

The title, ''Against the Day,'' contains references to many of the primary themes of the novel: light, opposites, mirror imagery...

ATD 81-96

2006-11-30T02:25:13Z

Budparr: /* Page 96 */

==Page 81==
'''Feast of St. Barbara''' 
According to legend, Saint Barbara was the extremely beautiful daughter of a wealthy heathen named Dioscorus, who lived near Nicomedia in Asia Minor, in the 4th Century AD. Because of her singular beauty and fearful that she be demanded in marriage and taken away from him, he jealously shut her up in a tower to protect her from the outside world. When Barbara converted to Christianity, her enraged father killed her and was subsequently struck down by lightening. St. Barbara was venerated as early as the seventh century. The legend of the lightning bolt which struck down her father caused her to be regarded as the patron saint in time of danger from thunderstorms, fires and sudden death. When gunpowder made its appearance in the Western world, Saint Barbara was invoked for aid against accidents resulting from explosions since some of the earlier artillery pieces often blew up instead of firing their projectile, Saint Barbara became the patroness of the artillerymen. [http://sill-www.army.mil/pao/pabarbar.htm From this website.]

==Page 82==
'''Skinner''' 
A person who drives mules.

'''Chinaman''' 
This is the latest of many allusions to China or Chinese in an exotic, oriental way. This may simply be imitating Gilded Age and early 20th century American fiction and films, which often featured mystical Chinese as characters and villains. It also recalls the use of Feng Shui in ''Mason & Dixon''.

'''Cripple Creek''' 
Cripple Creek was the location of a miner's strike in 1894. It was a significant labor event and it was the first time that a state Militia was called out in support of the miners. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cripple_Creek_miners'_strike_of_1894 Wikipedia entry]

==Page 85==
'''Innocent Victims...Monsters That Did the Deed''' 
Use of capitals seems to emphasize the fact that these persons are simply convenient stock characters in the forwarding of the owners'/government's agenda.

==Page 87==
Rev. Moss Gatlin's rhetorical question "How can anyone set off a bomb that will take innocent lives?" and its wisecrack response, "Long fuse" seems a calculated echo of Kubrick's 'Full Metal Jacket.' ("How can you shoot women and children?" "Easy -- don't lead 'em so much.")

'''Emile Henry, Vaillant''' 
Emile Henry (1872 - May 21, 1894) was a French anarchist who on February 12, 1894 detonated a bomb at the Café Terminus in the Parisian Gare Saint-Lazare killing one person and wounding twenty. Henry was angered over the execution of another Anarchist, Auguste Vaillant, for the destruction of a government building that hurt no one, and took it upon himself to strike back to avenge his fellow revolutionary's death. He saw the Cafe as a representation of the bourgeois itself and his intent was to kill as many people as possible in the bombing. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emile_Henry Wikipedia entry].

'''Mason-Dixon line''' 
We learn that the Traverse family had been "an old ridegerunning caln from southern Pennsylvania, close to the Mason-Dixon." No Traverses appear, however, in Pynchon's ''Mason & Dixon,'' but one can speculate that had they been, the Traverse ancestors may have been victims of the Line's bad Feng Shui. From this, one could infer a connection between the Line and Colorado Anarchism.

==Page 89==
'''Repeal of the Silver Act of 1893''' 

Prior to 1893, both Silver and Gold were used as a metallic standard for currency in the United States. The Sherman Act authorized the treasury to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver per month. This inflated the price of silver, causing eastern investors to start hoarding gold as a hedge. The unrest this caused in the Colorado mines resulted in the repeal of the Act. When this happened, the mining of silver began to rapidly decline, causing further destabilization in the silver mining industry.

==Page 93==
'''plutes''' 
plutocrats: members of the wealthy class controlling a government

==Page 95==
'''a radius of annhilation that, if it could not include the ones who deserved it, might as well include himself ''' 

Hair-raising to see Pynchon put the suicide bomber/terrorists back in the US where they also have a home; the effect also to make them (the suicide bombers over there somewhere - Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.) a bit less foreign, and to make ourselves, good US citizens, appear foreign to ourselves: how could we, civilized Americans interested only in democracy and freedom for all, have these feelings and desires?

September 11, 2001 and its consequences seem obvious on this novel, at least in these first 95 pages.

The author of this note acknowledges that some ATD readers do not agree that this passage refers to contemporary suicde bombers. But, arguably, Pynchon gets to have his cake and eat it too. By writing about a remote historical period, he's removed himself a considerable authorial distance, but he also
gets the benefit of resonance with current events by choosing which facts to highlight from the period, by choosing the diction with which to present them, all building on the reverberations inherent in the subject matter. Strict constructionists may point to the text and say, There's no mention of September 11, 2001, or President Bush, or suicide bombers in Afghanistan specifically on the page here, such an interpretation can't be supported by the text & etc. - and that's a reasonable point to make. The result is, so far in ATD, the frequent evocation of US post-September 11 in terms that will be difficult to nail down, but which are, at the same time, obvious to most readers if not all. Nothing new in Pynchon, of course, this sort of displacement makes his texts notoriously slippery.

==Page 96==

'''Sufficient unto the day''' 

From The Gospel According to Saint Matthew: 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (The New Testament of the King James Bible)

ATD 81-96

2006-11-30T02:24:14Z

Budparr: /* Page 96 */

==Page 81==
'''Feast of St. Barbara''' 
According to legend, Saint Barbara was the extremely beautiful daughter of a wealthy heathen named Dioscorus, who lived near Nicomedia in Asia Minor, in the 4th Century AD. Because of her singular beauty and fearful that she be demanded in marriage and taken away from him, he jealously shut her up in a tower to protect her from the outside world. When Barbara converted to Christianity, her enraged father killed her and was subsequently struck down by lightening. St. Barbara was venerated as early as the seventh century. The legend of the lightning bolt which struck down her father caused her to be regarded as the patron saint in time of danger from thunderstorms, fires and sudden death. When gunpowder made its appearance in the Western world, Saint Barbara was invoked for aid against accidents resulting from explosions since some of the earlier artillery pieces often blew up instead of firing their projectile, Saint Barbara became the patroness of the artillerymen. [http://sill-www.army.mil/pao/pabarbar.htm From this website.]

==Page 82==
'''Skinner''' 
A person who drives mules.

'''Chinaman''' 
This is the latest of many allusions to China or Chinese in an exotic, oriental way. This may simply be imitating Gilded Age and early 20th century American fiction and films, which often featured mystical Chinese as characters and villains. It also recalls the use of Feng Shui in ''Mason & Dixon''.

'''Cripple Creek''' 
Cripple Creek was the location of a miner's strike in 1894. It was a significant labor event and it was the first time that a state Militia was called out in support of the miners. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cripple_Creek_miners'_strike_of_1894 Wikipedia entry]

==Page 85==
'''Innocent Victims...Monsters That Did the Deed''' 
Use of capitals seems to emphasize the fact that these persons are simply convenient stock characters in the forwarding of the owners'/government's agenda.

==Page 87==
Rev. Moss Gatlin's rhetorical question "How can anyone set off a bomb that will take innocent lives?" and its wisecrack response, "Long fuse" seems a calculated echo of Kubrick's 'Full Metal Jacket.' ("How can you shoot women and children?" "Easy -- don't lead 'em so much.")

'''Emile Henry, Vaillant''' 
Emile Henry (1872 - May 21, 1894) was a French anarchist who on February 12, 1894 detonated a bomb at the Café Terminus in the Parisian Gare Saint-Lazare killing one person and wounding twenty. Henry was angered over the execution of another Anarchist, Auguste Vaillant, for the destruction of a government building that hurt no one, and took it upon himself to strike back to avenge his fellow revolutionary's death. He saw the Cafe as a representation of the bourgeois itself and his intent was to kill as many people as possible in the bombing. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emile_Henry Wikipedia entry].

'''Mason-Dixon line''' 
We learn that the Traverse family had been "an old ridegerunning caln from southern Pennsylvania, close to the Mason-Dixon." No Traverses appear, however, in Pynchon's ''Mason & Dixon,'' but one can speculate that had they been, the Traverse ancestors may have been victims of the Line's bad Feng Shui. From this, one could infer a connection between the Line and Colorado Anarchism.

==Page 89==
'''Repeal of the Silver Act of 1893''' 

Prior to 1893, both Silver and Gold were used as a metallic standard for currency in the United States. The Sherman Act authorized the treasury to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver per month. This inflated the price of silver, causing eastern investors to start hoarding gold as a hedge. The unrest this caused in the Colorado mines resulted in the repeal of the Act. When this happened, the mining of silver began to rapidly decline, causing further destabilization in the silver mining industry.

==Page 93==
'''plutes''' 
plutocrats: members of the wealthy class controlling a government

==Page 95==
'''a radius of annhilation that, if it could not include the ones who deserved it, might as well include himself ''' 

Hair-raising to see Pynchon put the suicide bomber/terrorists back in the US where they also have a home; the effect also to make them (the suicide bombers over there somewhere - Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.) a bit less foreign, and to make ourselves, good US citizens, appear foreign to ourselves: how could we, civilized Americans interested only in democracy and freedom for all, have these feelings and desires?

September 11, 2001 and its consequences seem obvious on this novel, at least in these first 95 pages.

The author of this note acknowledges that some ATD readers do not agree that this passage refers to contemporary suicde bombers. But, arguably, Pynchon gets to have his cake and eat it too. By writing about a remote historical period, he's removed himself a considerable authorial distance, but he also
gets the benefit of resonance with current events by choosing which facts to highlight from the period, by choosing the diction with which to present them, all building on the reverberations inherent in the subject matter. Strict constructionists may point to the text and say, There's no mention of September 11, 2001, or President Bush, or suicide bombers in Afghanistan specifically on the page here, such an interpretation can't be supported by the text & etc. - and that's a reasonable point to make. The result is, so far in ATD, the frequent evocation of US post-September 11 in terms that will be difficult to nail down, but which are, at the same time, obvious to most readers if not all. Nothing new in Pynchon, of course, this sort of displacement makes his texts notoriously slippery.

==Page 96==

"""Sufficient unto the day""" 

From The Gospel According to Saint Matthew: 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (The New Testament of the King James Bible)

ATD 81-96

2006-11-30T02:23:03Z

Budparr: /* 96 */

==Page 81==
'''Feast of St. Barbara''' 
According to legend, Saint Barbara was the extremely beautiful daughter of a wealthy heathen named Dioscorus, who lived near Nicomedia in Asia Minor, in the 4th Century AD. Because of her singular beauty and fearful that she be demanded in marriage and taken away from him, he jealously shut her up in a tower to protect her from the outside world. When Barbara converted to Christianity, her enraged father killed her and was subsequently struck down by lightening. St. Barbara was venerated as early as the seventh century. The legend of the lightning bolt which struck down her father caused her to be regarded as the patron saint in time of danger from thunderstorms, fires and sudden death. When gunpowder made its appearance in the Western world, Saint Barbara was invoked for aid against accidents resulting from explosions since some of the earlier artillery pieces often blew up instead of firing their projectile, Saint Barbara became the patroness of the artillerymen. [http://sill-www.army.mil/pao/pabarbar.htm From this website.]

==Page 82==
'''Skinner''' 
A person who drives mules.

'''Chinaman''' 
This is the latest of many allusions to China or Chinese in an exotic, oriental way. This may simply be imitating Gilded Age and early 20th century American fiction and films, which often featured mystical Chinese as characters and villains. It also recalls the use of Feng Shui in ''Mason & Dixon''.

'''Cripple Creek''' 
Cripple Creek was the location of a miner's strike in 1894. It was a significant labor event and it was the first time that a state Militia was called out in support of the miners. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cripple_Creek_miners'_strike_of_1894 Wikipedia entry]

==Page 85==
'''Innocent Victims...Monsters That Did the Deed''' 
Use of capitals seems to emphasize the fact that these persons are simply convenient stock characters in the forwarding of the owners'/government's agenda.

==Page 87==
Rev. Moss Gatlin's rhetorical question "How can anyone set off a bomb that will take innocent lives?" and its wisecrack response, "Long fuse" seems a calculated echo of Kubrick's 'Full Metal Jacket.' ("How can you shoot women and children?" "Easy -- don't lead 'em so much.")

'''Emile Henry, Vaillant''' 
Emile Henry (1872 - May 21, 1894) was a French anarchist who on February 12, 1894 detonated a bomb at the Café Terminus in the Parisian Gare Saint-Lazare killing one person and wounding twenty. Henry was angered over the execution of another Anarchist, Auguste Vaillant, for the destruction of a government building that hurt no one, and took it upon himself to strike back to avenge his fellow revolutionary's death. He saw the Cafe as a representation of the bourgeois itself and his intent was to kill as many people as possible in the bombing. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emile_Henry Wikipedia entry].

'''Mason-Dixon line''' 
We learn that the Traverse family had been "an old ridegerunning caln from southern Pennsylvania, close to the Mason-Dixon." No Traverses appear, however, in Pynchon's ''Mason & Dixon,'' but one can speculate that had they been, the Traverse ancestors may have been victims of the Line's bad Feng Shui. From this, one could infer a connection between the Line and Colorado Anarchism.

==Page 89==
'''Repeal of the Silver Act of 1893''' 

Prior to 1893, both Silver and Gold were used as a metallic standard for currency in the United States. The Sherman Act authorized the treasury to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver per month. This inflated the price of silver, causing eastern investors to start hoarding gold as a hedge. The unrest this caused in the Colorado mines resulted in the repeal of the Act. When this happened, the mining of silver began to rapidly decline, causing further destabilization in the silver mining industry.

==Page 93==
'''plutes''' 
plutocrats: members of the wealthy class controlling a government

==Page 95==
'''a radius of annhilation that, if it could not include the ones who deserved it, might as well include himself ''' 

Hair-raising to see Pynchon put the suicide bomber/terrorists back in the US where they also have a home; the effect also to make them (the suicide bombers over there somewhere - Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.) a bit less foreign, and to make ourselves, good US citizens, appear foreign to ourselves: how could we, civilized Americans interested only in democracy and freedom for all, have these feelings and desires?

September 11, 2001 and its consequences seem obvious on this novel, at least in these first 95 pages.

The author of this note acknowledges that some ATD readers do not agree that this passage refers to contemporary suicde bombers. But, arguably, Pynchon gets to have his cake and eat it too. By writing about a remote historical period, he's removed himself a considerable authorial distance, but he also
gets the benefit of resonance with current events by choosing which facts to highlight from the period, by choosing the diction with which to present them, all building on the reverberations inherent in the subject matter. Strict constructionists may point to the text and say, There's no mention of September 11, 2001, or President Bush, or suicide bombers in Afghanistan specifically on the page here, such an interpretation can't be supported by the text & etc. - and that's a reasonable point to make. The result is, so far in ATD, the frequent evocation of US post-September 11 in terms that will be difficult to nail down, but which are, at the same time, obvious to most readers if not all. Nothing new in Pynchon, of course, this sort of displacement makes his texts notoriously slippery.

==Page 96==

"Sufficient unto the day" 

From The Gospel According to Saint Matthew: 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (The New Testament of the King James Bible)

ATD 81-96

2006-11-30T02:22:39Z

Budparr:

==Page 81==
'''Feast of St. Barbara''' 
According to legend, Saint Barbara was the extremely beautiful daughter of a wealthy heathen named Dioscorus, who lived near Nicomedia in Asia Minor, in the 4th Century AD. Because of her singular beauty and fearful that she be demanded in marriage and taken away from him, he jealously shut her up in a tower to protect her from the outside world. When Barbara converted to Christianity, her enraged father killed her and was subsequently struck down by lightening. St. Barbara was venerated as early as the seventh century. The legend of the lightning bolt which struck down her father caused her to be regarded as the patron saint in time of danger from thunderstorms, fires and sudden death. When gunpowder made its appearance in the Western world, Saint Barbara was invoked for aid against accidents resulting from explosions since some of the earlier artillery pieces often blew up instead of firing their projectile, Saint Barbara became the patroness of the artillerymen. [http://sill-www.army.mil/pao/pabarbar.htm From this website.]

==Page 82==
'''Skinner''' 
A person who drives mules.

'''Chinaman''' 
This is the latest of many allusions to China or Chinese in an exotic, oriental way. This may simply be imitating Gilded Age and early 20th century American fiction and films, which often featured mystical Chinese as characters and villains. It also recalls the use of Feng Shui in ''Mason & Dixon''.

'''Cripple Creek''' 
Cripple Creek was the location of a miner's strike in 1894. It was a significant labor event and it was the first time that a state Militia was called out in support of the miners. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cripple_Creek_miners'_strike_of_1894 Wikipedia entry]

==Page 85==
'''Innocent Victims...Monsters That Did the Deed''' 
Use of capitals seems to emphasize the fact that these persons are simply convenient stock characters in the forwarding of the owners'/government's agenda.

==Page 87==
Rev. Moss Gatlin's rhetorical question "How can anyone set off a bomb that will take innocent lives?" and its wisecrack response, "Long fuse" seems a calculated echo of Kubrick's 'Full Metal Jacket.' ("How can you shoot women and children?" "Easy -- don't lead 'em so much.")

'''Emile Henry, Vaillant''' 
Emile Henry (1872 - May 21, 1894) was a French anarchist who on February 12, 1894 detonated a bomb at the Café Terminus in the Parisian Gare Saint-Lazare killing one person and wounding twenty. Henry was angered over the execution of another Anarchist, Auguste Vaillant, for the destruction of a government building that hurt no one, and took it upon himself to strike back to avenge his fellow revolutionary's death. He saw the Cafe as a representation of the bourgeois itself and his intent was to kill as many people as possible in the bombing. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emile_Henry Wikipedia entry].

'''Mason-Dixon line''' 
We learn that the Traverse family had been "an old ridegerunning caln from southern Pennsylvania, close to the Mason-Dixon." No Traverses appear, however, in Pynchon's ''Mason & Dixon,'' but one can speculate that had they been, the Traverse ancestors may have been victims of the Line's bad Feng Shui. From this, one could infer a connection between the Line and Colorado Anarchism.

==Page 89==
'''Repeal of the Silver Act of 1893''' 

Prior to 1893, both Silver and Gold were used as a metallic standard for currency in the United States. The Sherman Act authorized the treasury to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver per month. This inflated the price of silver, causing eastern investors to start hoarding gold as a hedge. The unrest this caused in the Colorado mines resulted in the repeal of the Act. When this happened, the mining of silver began to rapidly decline, causing further destabilization in the silver mining industry.

==Page 93==
'''plutes''' 
plutocrats: members of the wealthy class controlling a government

==Page 95==
'''a radius of annhilation that, if it could not include the ones who deserved it, might as well include himself ''' 

Hair-raising to see Pynchon put the suicide bomber/terrorists back in the US where they also have a home; the effect also to make them (the suicide bombers over there somewhere - Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.) a bit less foreign, and to make ourselves, good US citizens, appear foreign to ourselves: how could we, civilized Americans interested only in democracy and freedom for all, have these feelings and desires?

September 11, 2001 and its consequences seem obvious on this novel, at least in these first 95 pages.

The author of this note acknowledges that some ATD readers do not agree that this passage refers to contemporary suicde bombers. But, arguably, Pynchon gets to have his cake and eat it too. By writing about a remote historical period, he's removed himself a considerable authorial distance, but he also
gets the benefit of resonance with current events by choosing which facts to highlight from the period, by choosing the diction with which to present them, all building on the reverberations inherent in the subject matter. Strict constructionists may point to the text and say, There's no mention of September 11, 2001, or President Bush, or suicide bombers in Afghanistan specifically on the page here, such an interpretation can't be supported by the text & etc. - and that's a reasonable point to make. The result is, so far in ATD, the frequent evocation of US post-September 11 in terms that will be difficult to nail down, but which are, at the same time, obvious to most readers if not all. Nothing new in Pynchon, of course, this sort of displacement makes his texts notoriously slippery.

==96==

"Sufficient unto the day" 

From The Gospel According to Saint Matthew: 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (The New Testament of the King James Bible)

ATD 1-25

2006-11-28T22:41:56Z

Budparr:

'''Dedication''' 
Most of Pynchon's novels contain dedications-- ''Mason & Dixon'' ("For Melanie, and for Jackson") , ''Vineland'' ("For my mother and father"), and ''Gravity's Rainbow'' ("For Richard Farina")-- but not so ''Against the Day,'' as published. Advance reading copies of the book did contain the words "Dedication TK" in italics, but this is simply [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Come publisher-speak] for "dedication to come." It is unknown whether Pynchon ever considered inclusion of a dedication or whether the publisher simply left the page open just in case, but the ultimate lack of a dedication may suggest that Pynchon feels he's thanked everyone he needs to thank.

'''"It's always night, or we wouldn't need light."''' 
Epigraph by Thelonious Monk. Jazz and particularly bebop seem to be a lifelong interest of Pynchon’s, appearing in some form in all his works and what biographical snippets exist. As a college student, Pynchon “spent a lot of time in jazz clubs, nursing the two-beer minimum,” by his own admission (''Slow Learner'', Introduction).

==Page 3==

'''"Now single up all lines!"''' 
Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and "single up all lines" is a common enough nautical term. But the opening line has many possible connotations. The Modern Word's Quail [http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/pynchon_atd.html writes] that "it is simultaneously a self-directive and a call to the reader; suggesting that ''Against the Day'' is a culmination of his previous work, and also charging the reader to find meaning within its twisting labyrinth. It may also be a sly, preemptive joke on the book’s initial critics, as the novel begins with the launch of a bloated gasbag bearing a somewhat provocative name." For more on lines, see page 146. One may also want to pay attention to sections on 'vectors' (represented by arrows). "Single up all lines" is used in its normal nautical context in ''V.'', 11 and ''Gravity's Rainbow'', 489.

'''The Chums of Chance''' 
Cameraderie and isolation are two recurring topics in Pynchon's works. The Chums are a band of heroes like those commonly featured in the 19th century boys' fiction that Pynchon evokes, but also recall Pynchon's high school fictions, [http://themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_hamster.html Voice of the Hamster] and [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_boys.html The Boys], in which the teenage Pynchon lovingly portrayed his group of high school chums, known as, simply, "The Boys."

'''World's Columbian Exposition''' 
also called The Chicago World's Fair, was held in Chicago in 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World. Chicago bested New York City, Washington, D.C. and St. Louis, Missouri, for the honor of hosting the fair. The fair had a profound effect on architecture, the arts, Chicago's self image and American industrial optimism. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_Columbian_Exposition Wikipedia entry].

==Page 5==

'''Pugnax''' 
The name meaning, in Latin, "likes to fight." Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent dog, the Learned English Dog in ''Mason & Dixon''. Pugnax's manner of speech is also reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog "Scooby-Doo."

'''"...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit)..."'' 
This could be seen as a criticism of American Presidents present or past, or perhaps the Vietnam War, which Pynchon himself opposed.

==Page 8==

'''"which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched"''' 
Like the Prime Directive in ''Star Trek''.

==Page 9==

'''"Do not imagine, that in coming aboard ''Inconvenience'' you have escaped into any realm of the counterfactual..."''' 
This may be Pynchon directly addressing the reader. Given that his introductory blurb proclaims the world of AtD as what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two, this paragraph seems to indicate that Pynchon, like all great fantasy or sci-fi writers, does not intend to create a world where anything goes. Rather, he will create a world that differs from ours but then obey the rules and constraints he's already established.

'''"Going up is like going north."''' 
Anyone understand this statement by Randolph?? This simply seems to use the notion that most maps put north at the top, so moving north is moving 'up' the page. Once you pass the pole, you are going south, or back 'down' the map.

This may be an allusion to the change in climate from warm southern climates to cold northern climates. The contrast from southern california to northern california is apt, sunny beaches south...rainy foggy beaches north. Population thins out similar to the oxygen the further North you get. Alaska being the ideal extreme. One can see this as another of the many echoes to themes from "Gravity's Rainbow" in the "Light Over the Ranges" section. Ascending (in an airship or rocket) is like moving Northward to colder and less habitable environments, until one crosses the Pole (literally going 'Beyond the Zero.')

Also, it may further drive home the point, to Chick, that up does not lead to "any realm of the counterfactual": the comparison with going north should remind him that up is just another direction, strange and uncomfortable as it may be for him.

Are we reading too deeply into this statement? Perhaps it only means that the air gets cooler as the ship ascends into higher altitudes, and therefore is like travelling northward.
----
Importantly, going up (in altitude) is an '''expedited''' means of going to a place that is “like” the North (in latitude). For example, say you are at the foot of the Rocky Mountains on a summer day in Colorado. While the snowline on the mountains may only be a few miles ''up'', the snowline on land of the same or similar elevation to the land you stand on is likely a 1000+ miles ''north''. The sudden increase in altitude accompanying a flight aboard the Inconvenience does not allow one to acclimatize gradually to the northern feel -- thus Chick’s need for a “transitional” “foul-weather cloak”. Interestingly, in terms of gravity, going up is like going ''south'': [http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=465 gravity is relatively stronger at points of low altitude and high latitude].
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I think the more interesting part is the comment that there is a secret that we must not talk about where going further upwards creates an experience much like gover OVER the pole- i.e. warmer and marmer. This is the real question.

==Page 12==

'''Herr Riemann''' 
Riemann, Georg Friedrich Bernhard (1826-1866) (pronounced REE mahn or in IPA: ['ri:man]) was a German mathematician who made important contributions to analysis and differential geometry, some of them paving the way for the later development of general relativity. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann Wikipedia entry].

==Page 13==
'''"...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure."''' 
This is strikingly reminiscent of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odilon_Redon Odilon Redon's] 1882 Lithograph ''L'Oeil, comme un ballon bizarre se dirige vers l'infini (The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity).'' [http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ADE%3AI%3A2&page_number=4&template_id=1&sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]

Reference also to ATD Pg. 51 and "The Unsleeping Eye", an apparent reference to Pinkerton's competing PI agency.

==Page 14==

'''Jacob's-ladder''' 
Used here as "a marine ladder of rope or chain with wooden or iron rungs" (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged) but is suggestive of Jacob's ladder in Genesis:

Genesis 28:12 And he [jacob] dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. (King James version)

==Page 15==

'''ukelele''' 
Ukeleles also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. According to Jules Siegel's article, "Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?", Pynchon himself played the ukelele in college.

==Page 18==

'''Tzigane''' 
Meaning "gypsy".

==Page 24==

'''Epworth League''' 
A Methodist youth organization founded around 1899.

==Page 25==

'''Haymarket bomb''' 
The Haymarket Riot on May 4, 1886, in Chicago may be the origin of international May Day observances and in popular literature inspired the caricature of "a bomb-throwing anarchist." The causes of the incident are still controversial, although deeply polarized attitudes separating the business class and the working class in late 19th century Chicago are generally acknowledged as having precipitated the tragedy and its aftermath. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_bombing Wikipedia entry].

'''duck soup''' 
Meaning "an easy task," but also the name of a Marx Bros. movie. Perhaps relevant, given the cameo by Groucho promised on the book sleeve.