Against the Day

Against the Day
Name	Against the Day
Author	Thomas Pynchon
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	Penguin Press
Release date	November 21, 2006
Pages	1085
Isbn	1-59420-120-X

Against the Day is a sprawling historical epic by American novelist Thomas Pynchon, published in 2006. The narrative spans the period from the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 to the aftermath of World War I, weaving together a vast array of characters and subplots across the globe. It incorporates elements of science fiction, Westerns, spy fiction, and Victorian adventure, all filtered through Pynchon's signature postmodern lens. The novel is celebrated for its encyclopedic scope, linguistic playfulness, and deep engagement with the political and scientific upheavals of the fin de siècle.

Plot summary

The plot orbits initially around the adventures of the Chums of Chance, a crew of youthful aeronauts aboard their airship *Inconvenience*, whose missions blur the line between boy's adventure serial and geopolitical intrigue. Their paths intersect with a sprawling cast, including anarchist bomber Webb Traverse, his children Kit, Frank, and Reef, and mathematician Yashmeen Halfcourt. Key events include the labor wars in Colorado mining towns, espionage in pre-war Europe, expeditions to Asia and the Arctic, and the revolutionary ferment of places like Barcelona and Trieste. The narrative culminates in the cataclysm of the First World War and the Russian Revolution, with characters grappling with the dawn of a new, uncertain age.

Major themes

The novel relentlessly explores the nature of light and time, drawing heavily on the era's scientific revolutions, including the work of Nikola Tesla and debates between classical physics and emerging quantum theory. It interrogates the violent rise of capitalism and the state, counterpoised with various forms of resistance, from anarcho-syndicalism in the American West to mystical Tantric practices. Themes of duality, parallel worlds, and historical determinism versus chance are pervasive, often symbolized by concepts like bilocation and the fourth dimension. The quest for transcendent knowledge, whether through mathematics, spiritualism, or political action, is a central driver for many characters.

Characters

The enormous dramatis personae includes the idealized, pulp-inspired Chums of Chance, comprising Randolph St. Cosmo, Lindsay Noseworth, Chick Counterfly, and Miles Blundell. The Traverse family saga involves patriarch Webb Traverse, his vengeful sons Frank and Reef, and mathematician son Kit Traverse, who studies under Leibnizian scholar Dr. Vanderjuice. Other pivotal figures include the enigmatic spy and linguist Yashmeen Halfcourt; her suitors, Cambridge mathematician Cyprian Latewood and weapons magnate René-Victorien Vibe; Russian terrorist Svidrigailov; and detective Lew Basnight. Historical personages like Nikola Tesla, Guglielmo Marconi, and Bela Lugosi also make appearances.

Structure and style

The novel's structure is famously complex and non-linear, comprising a mosaic of interwoven narratives that shift between genres and tones with dizzying speed. Pynchon employs a vast range of stylistic registers, from the parodic prose of dime novels and Edwardian adventure stories to dense theoretical discourses on vector analysis and Riemannian geometry. The prose is characterized by its punning, neologisms, allusive depth, and a pervasive, often melancholic, irony. This stylistic plurality mirrors the novel's thematic concern with multiple, coexisting realities and the fragmentation of historical narrative.

Critical reception

Upon release, the novel received widespread critical attention, with reviews in major outlets like *The New York Times*, *The Guardian*, and *London Review of Books*. Many praised its breathtaking ambition, comic brilliance, and profound historical imagination, with critic Harold Bloom including it in his Western canon. Others found its immense length and discursive nature daunting or criticized it for perceived narrative indulgence. It was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and has since been the subject of extensive academic analysis, solidifying its status as a landmark of 21st-century postmodern literature.

Publication history

*Against the Day* was published on November 21, 2006, by Penguin Press in the United States and Jonathan Cape in the United Kingdom. The publication was preceded by an enigmatic, website-based promotional campaign characteristic of Pynchon's secretive public persona. The first printing was a significant event in literary publishing, given the author's reclusive stature and the novel's monumental scale. It has since been translated into numerous languages, including German, French, and Spanish, and remains in print as a Penguin Classics paperback.

Category:2006 American novels Category:Novels by Thomas Pynchon Category:Postmodern novels