Difference between revisions of "ATD cover"

 
(removed big book look NYT article, as its presence on the other page is enough)
 
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[[Image:ATD_finalcover.jpg|250px|thumb|Against the Day, cover design by Michael Ian Kaye|right]][[Image:ATD_oldcover.jpg|thumb|An earlier version of the cover. ANYONE GOT A BIGGER COPY OF THIS???|right]]
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[[Image:ATD_finalcover.jpg|250px|thumb|Against the Day, cover design by Michael Ian Kaye|left]]
  
The final cover of ''Against the Day'' is pretty minimalist, depicting an aged, slightly yellowing book or manuscript in reference to the novel's setting, 1893 through World War I, and the book's mock-recreation of prose from that era. Although almost all of Pynchon's earlier novels featured more graphical elements on the original United States edition covers, ''Against the Day'''s cover may be simpler for a number of reasons: 1) how to you do justice to a 1,100 novel through a single image? 2) the artist didn't have time to read the book, 3) it looks cool, and/or 4) Pynchon wanted it that way.
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If you're really curious, see our (minor spoilerish) [[ATD cover analysis|obsessive over-analysis]] of the cover.
 
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We don't know. What we do know is that the book cover is designed by Michael Ian Kaye, who has designed the covers of previous Pynchon novels. '''WHICH ONES?''' This could indicate that Pynchon likes Kaye's previous work.
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We also know that an earlier version of the cover was circulated in promotional material before the novel's release. Note that in the earlier cover, the mysterious red seal looks slightly different, with the (Tibetan?) writing wrapped within a second border. What the heck this seal means is no doubt revealed in the book, but what this indicates is that Pynchon probably asked for the change, and is thus fair game in any textual analysis.
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The generally white color of the cover ties in with the light/dark metaphor that Pynchon weaves into the novel. Perhaps the cover is also largely bare so that the "reader can decide," as Pynchon writes in the book's [[Against_the_Day_description|description]], with minimal outside interference from anything but the text itself.
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Latest revision as of 18:10, 11 February 2007

Against the Day, cover design by Michael Ian Kaye

If you're really curious, see our (minor spoilerish) obsessive over-analysis of the cover.

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