Pynchon Wiki: Against the Day

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Welcome to the Against the Day Wiki

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Order Against the Day

Order the USA paperback

Buy it used on eBay

Infinite Jest Wiki is up and rolling.

Check it out... (To become a contributor, you'll have to register separately from the Pynchon wikis.)

Against the Day ... the CD!

by the band Land of Kush, on Constellation Records. Release date is 3/9/09. Read more... and Listen!

French Translation Now Available

The French translation of Against the Day is now available. The translation is by Claro. Interesting cover art.

Pagination Blues?

The UK paperback edition of Against the Day has a markedly different pagination from the original hardback editions — it is 1220 pages, up from the original 1085 pages. Read on...

Pynchon Wiki Analyzed

A couple of scholars at Oxford's Internet Institute and e-Research Centre have published an interesting paper on us and this project: Literary Sleuths Online: e-Research Collaboration on the Pynchon Wiki. Feel free to add comments and corrections.

Cricket anyone?

Excellent article by Peter Vernon on cricket as metaphor in Against the Day — Read it...

This is the Wiki for Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day. You can take a look at the cover, read the book description written by Pynchon himself, read the reviews, entertain some theories on the source of the title, or check out the Errata.

How to Use this Wiki

There are two major ways to use this wiki. The first is the Against the Day Alphabetical Index, used to keep track of the myriad characters, real and imagined, as well as events, arcana, and lots of other stuff. The second is the Spoiler-Free Annotations by Page, which allows the reader to look up and contribute allusions and references while reading the book, in a convenient and spoiler-free manner. These two sections are so far almost entirely different, but we're working on integrating them.

Apart from those, it's up to you! In addition to your own research, feel free to add relevant information or interpetations gleaned from other Against the Day online discussions such as the Pynchon-L mailing list, The Chumps of Choice blog, Against the Day blog, and others-- with proper attribution, of course.

Alphabetical Index

Information on the characters, events, and everything else in Against the Day, organized alphabetically:

Against the Day Alpha Guide

A·B·C·D·E·F·G·H·I·J·K·L·M·N·O·P·Q·R·S·T·U·V·W·XYZ top of page

Spoiler-free Annotations by Page

An alternate form of commentary on the text. The guiding principle of these annotations is to remain spoiler-free, so that readers can follow along without the fear that later parts of the book will be revealed.

Part One: The Light Over the Ranges	1-25, 26-56, 57-80, 81-96, 97-118
Part Two: Iceland Spar	119-148, 149-170, 171-198, 199-218, 219-242, 243-272, 273-295, 296-317, 318-335, 336-357, 358-373, 374-396, 397-428
Part Three: Bilocations	429-459, 460-488, 489-524, 525-556, 557-587, 588-614, 615-643, 644-677, 678-694
Part Four: Against the Day	695-723, 724-747, 748-767, 768-791, 792-820, 821-848, 849-863, 864-891, 892-918, 919-945, 946-975, 976-999, 1000-1017, 1018-1039, 1040-1062
Part Five: Rue du Départ	1063-1085

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Pynchon Wiki Help and Contributor Guidelines

Click here for help with editing and creating pages.

We have a few conventions we ask that you follow:

When creating a new page, first check to make sure a page/article about what you want to write about hasn't already been created, by checking the list of all Wiki pages on Pynchon Wiki. If a page already exists, please modify that one.

When creating a new page, if its information pertains to one (and only one) specific Pynchon novel, please categorize it with the appropriate identifier. For example, a page pertaining to Against the Day (currently the only novel being annotated here), should use the syntax [[Category:ATD]].

To open a discussion on an individual listing of the Alpha Index, create one using the entry on Peter Tait as an example. Basically, give it a name that identifies the alpha listing (eg [[Name Discussion|DISCUSSION]]) and notice that the visible name will be "DISCUSSION" in full caps, so it stands out a bit.

More help for this wiki available here.

External Links

The Modern Word: counting down to ATD

The Fictional Woods - a Pynchon forum

Pynchonoid Blog
ATD Blog
Another ATD Blog
Wikipedia ATD page
Emanating Against the Day
1911 Encyclopaedia Brittanica
Extended ToC for Against the Day
The Fuss About Pynchon - Great article by John Carvill in PopMatters about Pynchon's work.
BBC: Tunguska at 100
Literarywiki.org - like Pynchonwiki, but for all other books. Founded by one of Pynchonwiki's early contributors.

Featured Article

It’s Just Not Cricket: Cricket as Metaphor in Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day

Peter Vernon presented this insightful paper at the Conference on Against the Day held in Tours, France, in June 2007, elucidating one of Against the Day's myriad vectors of meaning.

"It is for two main reasons, I believe, that Pynchon uses the game of cricket as a metaphor in Against the Day. First, because cricket is the Imperial game, a game exported by the British to its colonies. And, second, because cricket is a game of balance, doubles and mirror images. The off-break is exactly balanced by the leg-break; the googly by the doosra. Cricket operates in terms of mirror-images and can be seen, therefore, to connect, on a metaphorical level, with the themes of Double Refraction, the Michelson-Morley Experiment, Iceland Spar, the Zombinis and the Isle of Mirrors in Venice." ( Read on...)