Difference between revisions of "Against the Day description"
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| − | The following is the blurb, attributed to Thomas Pynchon, that appeared, disappeared and reappeared on Amazon.com, for Pynchon's latest novel, ''Against the Day'', | + | The following is the blurb, attributed to Thomas Pynchon, that appeared, disappeared and reappeared on Amazon.com, for Pynchon's latest novel, ''Against the Day'', released 11/21/06 by Penguin Press. This piece of writing was also used in promotional materials by the publisher, and was eventually edited down (with all author attribution removed) for the book jacket flap copy. |
Spanning the period between the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition Chicago World's Fair of 1893] and the years just after World War I, this novel moves from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cripple_Creek_miners'_strike_of_1894 labor troubles in Colorado] to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event Tunguska Event], Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all. | Spanning the period between the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition Chicago World's Fair of 1893] and the years just after World War I, this novel moves from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cripple_Creek_miners'_strike_of_1894 labor troubles in Colorado] to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event Tunguska Event], Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all. | ||
Revision as of 13:24, 21 November 2006
The following is the blurb, attributed to Thomas Pynchon, that appeared, disappeared and reappeared on Amazon.com, for Pynchon's latest novel, Against the Day, released 11/21/06 by Penguin Press. This piece of writing was also used in promotional materials by the publisher, and was eventually edited down (with all author attribution removed) for the book jacket flap copy.
Spanning the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious Tunguska Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all. With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.
The sizable cast of characters includes anarchists, balloonists, gamblers, corporate tycoons, drug enthusiasts, innocents and decadents, mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, psychics, and stage magicians, spies, detectives, adventuresses, and hired guns. There are cameo appearances by Nikola Tesla, Bela Lugosi, and Groucho Marx.
As an era of certainty comes crashing down around their ears and an unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just trying to pursue their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes it's their lives that pursue them.
Meanwhile, the author is up to his usual business. Characters stop what they're doing to sing what are for the most part stupid songs. Strange sexual practices take place. Obscure languages are spoken, not always idiomatically. Contrary-to-the-fact occurrences occur. If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction.
Let the reader decide, let the reader beware. Good luck.
—Thomas Pynchon
