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174 reviews for:
Thomas pynchon's Against the day: A Deleuzian reading of pynchon's language.
Thomas Pynchon
4.19 AVERAGE
174 reviews for:
Thomas pynchon's Against the day: A Deleuzian reading of pynchon's language.
Thomas Pynchon
4.19 AVERAGE
lost my place in the endless audiobook files and don't really care enough about the story to try and figure out where I left off.
“Those whose enduring object is power in this world are only too happy to use without remorse the others, whose aim is of course to transcend all questions of power. Each regards the other as a pack of deluded fools.”
“Those Indian mystics and Tibetan lamas and so forth were right all along, the world we think we know can be dissected and reassembled into any number of worlds, each as real as 'this' one.”
“Those Indian mystics and Tibetan lamas and so forth were right all along, the world we think we know can be dissected and reassembled into any number of worlds, each as real as 'this' one.”
Phew! I started reading this on March 18th, and finished it yesterday afternoon, all the while concentrating on no other books except this one. And I'm glad I did.
As a Pynchon fan, my expectations were quite high. Reading Pynchon is not for everyone, and it is very demanding. It's also very rewarding. Simply put, Thomas Pynchon will confuse, startle, impress and infuriate you, and sometime make you groan with his penchant for bad puns, but he'll never bore you.
I won't bother you with the details surrounding the plot to this story; I wouldn't be able to bring it any justice. Let's just say all the hallmarks of Pynchon's writing are evident here - a cast of characters that would make Cecil B. DeMille furious with envy, references to historical events both famous and obscure, songs, mathematics, plot twists, time travel, and bad jokes. More or less, Against the Day is something of a detective story, and the detectives are a myriad of characters chasing (or being chased by a) destiny. One can even make the inference that Against the Day is the prequel to Pynchon's most famous work, Gravity's Rainbow.
Again, Pynchon is not for everyone, and if you're a beginner reader of his work, you're better off starting with V. or The Crying of Lot 49, and working your way up. As far as Pynchon's work is concerned, I'd put this right next to Gravity's Rainbow as his most accomplished, rewarding, and *GASP!* accessible novel.
As a Pynchon fan, my expectations were quite high. Reading Pynchon is not for everyone, and it is very demanding. It's also very rewarding. Simply put, Thomas Pynchon will confuse, startle, impress and infuriate you, and sometime make you groan with his penchant for bad puns, but he'll never bore you.
I won't bother you with the details surrounding the plot to this story; I wouldn't be able to bring it any justice. Let's just say all the hallmarks of Pynchon's writing are evident here - a cast of characters that would make Cecil B. DeMille furious with envy, references to historical events both famous and obscure, songs, mathematics, plot twists, time travel, and bad jokes. More or less, Against the Day is something of a detective story, and the detectives are a myriad of characters chasing (or being chased by a) destiny. One can even make the inference that Against the Day is the prequel to Pynchon's most famous work, Gravity's Rainbow.
Again, Pynchon is not for everyone, and if you're a beginner reader of his work, you're better off starting with V. or The Crying of Lot 49, and working your way up. As far as Pynchon's work is concerned, I'd put this right next to Gravity's Rainbow as his most accomplished, rewarding, and *GASP!* accessible novel.
Y'ever been at a party and the conversation turns to books and one comes up that you've read but when someone asks what it's about you freeze and blurt something that sort of makes sense but doesn't do it justice and then small talk passes on while you spend the rest of the night kicking yourself over a missed opportunity?
Well anyway, this book is about America.
But seriously, folks, if we want to get specific, this book is like what happens when you sew a Spaghetti Western to a Steampunk Sci-Fi, graft on a bit of Spy Thriller, tie the whole shebang to a Tesla coil and let 'er rip.
3.25 stars out of 5. I have heard it said that the really great writers can only be compared with themselves. Nobody out-Shakespeares Shakespeare, and nobody out-Pynchons Pynchon. So yes it's great writing but it's all over the map (har!) and in my opinion is well overshadowed by his other work. Something about all these far-flung pieces refused to cohere for me and I often felt like I was being yanked about with little reward. And maybe that's the point, but if so—blech.
All told this one seemed to me like maybe a halfway point, work-to-enjoyability-wise, between Gravity's Rainbow and Mason & Dixon. The big payoff wasn't there for me at the end.
And now, as has become my Pynchon tradition, a series of dynamite (har again!) quotes:
History has flowed in to surround us all, and I am left adrift without certainty, only conjectures. (748)
"...no one ever speaks plainly. Whether it's Cockney rhyming codes or the crosswords in the newspapers—all English, spoken or written, is looked down on as no more than strings of text cleverly encrypted. Nothing beyond." (224)
"[T]he American West—it is a spiritual territory! in which we seek to study the secrets of your—national soul!"
"Ha! Ha!" Merle slapped his knee. "You fellows, I swear. What 'national soul'? We don't have any 'national soul'! 'F you think any different, why you're just packing out pyrites, brother." (293)
Had they gone, themselves, through some mutation into imperfect replicas of who they once were? meant to revisit the scenes of unresolved conflicts, the way ghosts are said to revisit places where destinies took a wrong turn, or revisit in dreams the dreaming body of one loved more than either might have known, as if whatever happened between them could in that way be put right again? Were they now but torn and trailing after-images of clandestine identities needed on some mission long ended, forgotten, but unwilling or unable to be released from it? (423)
"We were always at the mercy of Time, as much as any civilian 'groundhog.' We went from two dimensions, infant's floor-space, out into town- and map-space, ever toddling our way into the third dimension, till as Chums recruits we could take the fateful leap skyward . . . and now, after these years of sky-roving, maybe some of us are ready to step 'sidewise' once more, into the next dimension—into Time—our fate, our lord, our destroyer." (427)
"We have had no choice," fiercely... "No more than ghosts may choose what places they must haunt . . . you children drift in a dream, all is smooth, no interruptions, no discontinuities, but imagine the fabric of Time torn open, and yourselves swept through, with no way back, orphans and exiles who find you will do what you must, however shameful, to get from end to end of each corroded day." (555)
"But look here, it's wartime, ain't it. Not like Antietam maybe, big armies all out in the light of day that you can see, but the bullets are still flyin, brave men go down, treacherous ones do their work in the night, take their earthly rewards, and then the shitheads live forever." (727)
Well anyway, this book is about America.
But seriously, folks, if we want to get specific, this book is like what happens when you sew a Spaghetti Western to a Steampunk Sci-Fi, graft on a bit of Spy Thriller, tie the whole shebang to a Tesla coil and let 'er rip.
3.25 stars out of 5. I have heard it said that the really great writers can only be compared with themselves. Nobody out-Shakespeares Shakespeare, and nobody out-Pynchons Pynchon. So yes it's great writing but it's all over the map (har!) and in my opinion is well overshadowed by his other work. Something about all these far-flung pieces refused to cohere for me and I often felt like I was being yanked about with little reward. And maybe that's the point, but if so—blech.
All told this one seemed to me like maybe a halfway point, work-to-enjoyability-wise, between Gravity's Rainbow and Mason & Dixon. The big payoff wasn't there for me at the end.
And now, as has become my Pynchon tradition, a series of dynamite (har again!) quotes:
Spoiler
"Oh, it's the usual. They think he'll lead them to some greater apparatus, he's content to let them go on dreaming. Bit like marriage, I suppose." (866)History has flowed in to surround us all, and I am left adrift without certainty, only conjectures. (748)
"...no one ever speaks plainly. Whether it's Cockney rhyming codes or the crosswords in the newspapers—all English, spoken or written, is looked down on as no more than strings of text cleverly encrypted. Nothing beyond." (224)
"[T]he American West—it is a spiritual territory! in which we seek to study the secrets of your—national soul!"
"Ha! Ha!" Merle slapped his knee. "You fellows, I swear. What 'national soul'? We don't have any 'national soul'! 'F you think any different, why you're just packing out pyrites, brother." (293)
Had they gone, themselves, through some mutation into imperfect replicas of who they once were? meant to revisit the scenes of unresolved conflicts, the way ghosts are said to revisit places where destinies took a wrong turn, or revisit in dreams the dreaming body of one loved more than either might have known, as if whatever happened between them could in that way be put right again? Were they now but torn and trailing after-images of clandestine identities needed on some mission long ended, forgotten, but unwilling or unable to be released from it? (423)
"We were always at the mercy of Time, as much as any civilian 'groundhog.' We went from two dimensions, infant's floor-space, out into town- and map-space, ever toddling our way into the third dimension, till as Chums recruits we could take the fateful leap skyward . . . and now, after these years of sky-roving, maybe some of us are ready to step 'sidewise' once more, into the next dimension—into Time—our fate, our lord, our destroyer." (427)
"We have had no choice," fiercely... "No more than ghosts may choose what places they must haunt . . . you children drift in a dream, all is smooth, no interruptions, no discontinuities, but imagine the fabric of Time torn open, and yourselves swept through, with no way back, orphans and exiles who find you will do what you must, however shameful, to get from end to end of each corroded day." (555)
"But look here, it's wartime, ain't it. Not like Antietam maybe, big armies all out in the light of day that you can see, but the bullets are still flyin, brave men go down, treacherous ones do their work in the night, take their earthly rewards, and then the shitheads live forever." (727)
Finished reading Against the Day yesterday after almost two months of reading. I didn't expect to read this for so long, but it was difficult trying to find the time to read, and taking notes significally increased the read time as well.
Wrote down (almost) all of the characters, all of the establishments the characters were at or mentioned, some other miscellaneous things I thought might be useful to record, and I also made a sort of a family tree of connections between notable characters (some might be missing).
About a quarter of the way through the book, I remembered u/Easy_Albatross_3538's beautiful illustrations that he posts here frequently. I added nearly all of the ATD ones he's posted on Reddit into my notes at the appropriate spots. The only two I couldn't place are Let's Begin to Spiral (must've taken place before I started adding the illustrations in) and Airship (this one's probably at the very beginning of the book). Hoping he reposts high-quality versions of all the others he has on his website (and with page numbers if possible
Wrote down (almost) all of the characters, all of the establishments the characters were at or mentioned, some other miscellaneous things I thought might be useful to record, and I also made a sort of a family tree of connections between notable characters (some might be missing).
About a quarter of the way through the book, I remembered u/Easy_Albatross_3538's beautiful illustrations that he posts here frequently. I added nearly all of the ATD ones he's posted on Reddit into my notes at the appropriate spots. The only two I couldn't place are Let's Begin to Spiral (must've taken place before I started adding the illustrations in) and Airship (this one's probably at the very beginning of the book). Hoping he reposts high-quality versions of all the others he has on his website (and with page numbers if possible
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Too much violence against women. And because the women have "darkness" or "light" in their eyes like they are somehow at fault for bad things happening to them because of the way light reflects off their eye balls or pupils or something. It went from creepy and then just kept getting worse. Terrified for every female character that shows up. Wishing they could escape the book. I think I could read this if the book had all male characters and zero sex scenes. I was enjoying everything else that was in the book but I can't make it past some parts. I think I need to save my mental health and walk away.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Kidnapping
adventurous
challenging
funny
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Actually, it was brilliant. I do think a good editing would help, maybe discipline it to 800 pages, but the fun and joy in the language, the intricacies in the plot, all really interesting.