Difference between revisions of "Against the Day Title"

Revision as of 08:25, 1 December 2006

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

Contra Jour

Contra Jour is a photographic term meaning, literally, 'Against the Day' or 'Against the Light'. This seems particularly relevant given that light is a major theme in the book.

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 Darconville's Cat and the upcoming 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: American Standard Bible)

Theroux's review can be found in 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...

Appearances of "against the day" in other Pynchon works

Mason & Dixon

p. 125

Mason nods, gazing past the little Harbor, out to Sea. None of his business where Maskelyne goes, or comes,—God let is remain so. The Stars wheel into the blackness of the broken steep Hills guarding the Mouth of the Valley. Fog begins to stir against the Day swelling near. Among the whiten'd Rock Walls of the Houses seethes a great Whisper of living Voice.

p. 683

...till the Moment they must pass over the Crest of the Savage Mountain, does there remain to them, contrary to Reason, against the Day, a measurable chance, to turn, to go back out of no more than Stubbornness, and somehow make all come right...