Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 55: Line 186 (979)

 Later, after closing day, an autumn deepened over the corrupted prairie, as the ill-famed Hawk, miles aloft, invisibly rehearsed its Arctic repertoire of swift descent, merciless assault, rapture of souls—the abandoned structures of the Fair would come to house the jobless and hungry who had always been there, even at the height of the season of miracle just concluded.

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"closing day"
October 30th, 1893. Closing ceremonies were cancelled because the mayor went and got himself assassinated two days prior.

"corrupted prairie"
I suppose corrupted by mankind in the sense that it was no longer in its natural and innocent state with the advent of man (especially European man although I bet Native Americans did a fair bit of corrupting too! Just different kinds of corruption!). The idea of the prairie being corrupted alludes to the later metaphor of the hawk's victims as souls being raptured: leaving the corrupt earth for the divine heavens.

"ill-famed Hawk"
Probably Buteo lagopus, the Rough-legged Hawk, which lives in the Arctic (thus the "Arctic repertoire") but migrates down to regions across the central United States during winter.

"rapture of souls"
I already pointed out how this is a metaphor! Poor Prairie Dogs being shot up into heaven while their compatriots spin around blinking and thinking, "Where the fuck did Bob go?!"

"the abandoned structures of the Fair"
A good majority of buildings built for World Fairs is meant to be temporary although often various places are maintained so that they still stand. Like the Space Needle in Seattle (as well as various apartment buildings full of cracks in the surrounding areas that weren't meant to become permanent living spaces). The Palace of Fine Arts, now the Museum of Science and Industry (fits thematically!), still stands, having survived the fire of 1894 which destroyed most of the temporary buildings before anybody could fix them up to be less temporary. A few other buildings survived (as well as a ticket booth but probably not the one Lindsay and Miles used because that was definitely not a real ticket booth) by being disassembled and shipped to other places to be reassembled. One of these was the Pabst Pavilion which I mention because beer.

"house the jobless and hungry who had always been there"
But, knowing the way capitalists proud of the city they live in prepare for any large event which will attract tourists, they were probably rousted from the area constantly, beaten, driven out, or arrested. Also, they were probably mostly invisible to tourists not wanting to see the those things which claimed the exact opposite of what the World's Fair was meant to proclaim. Not everything was fucking white shining cities and roses for everybody. It was also these squatters who were blamed for the fire of 1894 which destroyed most of the buildings but I bet it was some fucking capitalist who made off with a good bit of insurance money!

Chapter 1: Section 3: Page 22: Line 17 (302)

 Observers of the Fair had remarked how, as one moved up and down its Midway, the more European, civilized, and . . . well, frankly, white exhibits located closer to the center of the "White City" seemed to be, whereas the farther from that alabaster Metropolis one ventured, the more evident grew the signs of cultural darkness and savagery.

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It's good to say that observers noticed this phenomenon because it's evidence and proof. But even without the observers' observations, any rational thinking person would have come to this conclusion. Obviously the Eurocentric stuff was going to be highlighted! White people think history was made by white people! White people think civilization was created by white people! It would take half a semester of a class on non-white civilizations to prove to them how untrue this is but none of them would take that class because they'd read "Non-white Civilizations" and think, "What's the Goddamned point?!" What's particularly hilarious to me is how white people who think they're smart and rational might state how white people invented everything and, by doing so, prove that they're anything but smart and rational. It's just a glaringly incorrect statement that exposes the speaker's ignorance of world history.

"cultural darkness and savagery"
"Cultural darkness" is white speak for "a culture that doesn't resemble white culture." Somehow a culture ignorant of European culture is a culture that has never seen the light of day. Maybe it's against the day, even?! "Savagery" is white speak for "having laws and social mores that are different from European laws and social mores, which makes no sense at all, goes against God and nature, is entirely outrageous from any rational perspective, and is denotative of the beasts in the field."
    What this passage suggests is that the Fair has put white civilization at the center and, according to Derrida, the center is the one irreplaceable aspect of a system. But the center of a system cannot be a part of the system. It is both at the center and also outside of the system at the same time. The parts of the system that radiate out from the center are the only parts that are malleable, that can change. And the way they change is often dictated by the system at the center. So white civilization wants the other civilizations of the world to change and become more like the center, to create stability in some kind of homogeneity.
    But we also know the center cannot hold because things fall apart. And what happens at that point is that a new center takes the place of the old center. In the case of America in 1893 (and, basically, Western Civilization as a whole), the center was beginning to change drastically. It's almost certainly why Pynchon chose this time period for Against the Day. By 1893, rationality, science, and technology were taking the place of God. God was being kicked out of the center and being replaced by mankind's ability to know and control his environment in ways that no longer needed God as an answer to any question. (By the time Pynchon writes Gravity's Rainbow, another change to the center has begun to take place as we discover rationality has brought us to the brink of destruction. Gravity's Rainbow takes place during World War II and covers the space of time in which Hiroshima is leveled by the United States of America's use of the atomic bomb and it's also written during the Vietnam War, two spaces in time that suggest the death of rationality and a waning of Western Civilization's centerness.)
    But until any of that happens, we have the Chicago's World Fair, still maintaining Western Civilization's belief that it's the center of the world, that it is the light in the darkness, the bringer of order to the fringes of culture across the globe. And it only costs a person fifty cents to learn it!

Chapter 1: Section 3: Page 22: Line 16 (301)

 From somewhere ahead too dark to see came music from a small orchestra, unusually syncopated, which grew louder, till they could make out a small outdoor dance-floor, all but unlit, where couples were dancing, and about which crowds were streaming densely everywhere, among odors of beer, garlic, tobacco smoke, inexpensive perfume, and, from Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, somewhere up ahead, the unmistakable scent of massed livestock.

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My initial reaction to the boys' first experience of the Fair is that of a rodeo during Oktoberfest at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

"somewhere ahead too dark to see"
This is a strange way to begin the boys' journey into the Chicago World's Fair, seeing as how the entire thing is known for its electric light displays. But it makes sense seeing as how the boys seemingly came through a hole in the fence manned by some anarchic entrepreneur taking advantage of a loophole in the capitalist system. They would not have entered on a broad well-lighted street leading them into the heart of the experience. They would have entered in the dark, behind the displays and the shops and the exhibits, having to make their way to the lighted part of the world and the controlled, maintained part of the experience.

"a small orchestra, unusually syncopated"
I tried to read the Wikipedia entry on syncopation but realized early on that I would never understand it. Music, music notation, music terminology, and music theory will always remain a foreign language to me and I'm terrible with languages. I don't even do English that well. I'm not tone deaf or anything! I can do Karaoke reasonably well (depending on the song and singer. I'll sing Indigo Girls or Concrete Blonde even though I know I can't do them justice. But I also don't shit all over them, seeing as how familiar I am with them. But I could never sing, say, a Van Halen song with Sammy Hagar because I just can't do what he's doing. And he's a way worse singer than Johnette or Amy or Emily!) but tell me there's a key change in a song and I'm like, "What? Is there? What is that? Maybe I heard it? I don't know!" If I'm singing a song where two singers are singing harmony, the Non-Certified Wife has told me that I'll often slip back and forth between the two harmonies. I don't even know enough to figure out how to stop from doing that!
    Anyways, I can state the definition of syncopation but it's absolutely meaningless to me. I suppose somebody could explain it to me while giving me audible examples of what it is and I might understand it at the moment. But forget retaining that knowledge! It might accidentally drive out some of my memories of the first time different women put their hands down the front of my pants!

"a small outdoor dance-floor, all but unlit, where couples were dancing"
Since the electric lights are part of the thrill of the Fair, the only reason for this dance floor to be "all but unlit" is so that couples can grind their private parts together while pretending to be doing not that in a socially acceptable and traditional activity. I think "syncopated" also means "a beat that helps people fuck."

"Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show"

I'm sure mentioning Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show is somehow important to the themes in Against the Day but being as how this is my first reading of it, I'm currently ignorant on what those themes might be. I will say that it's probably an example of liminal spaces! Once again, we experience a blurry point in time where there's a significant boundary between the past and the future. "The frontier has gone," proclaimed Frederick Turner at the Chicago's World Fair. What was once an authentic experience was now simply a "historic" entertainment told through the voice of the white men who experienced it, even if that white man were employing Native Americans. From a time when Native Americans had agency in their lives, they were now no more than exhibits of the idea of what white men thought they were. In a way, Buffalo Bill's show, begun in 1883 and bankrupt in 1913, is the thirty year boundary between the frontier and the modern era, from authenticity to simulacrum, from a group of people acting out of personal investment and agency to groups of people acting the stereotypes of others.

"the unmistakable scent of massed livestock"
I'm sure a lot of people from the Midwest understand this smell. I only truly learned of this smell, having grown up in California, in my early twenties when I visited my friend Doom Bunny while he was in college at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. Pee-yew!

Chapter 1: Section 3: Page 21: Line 12 (297)

 At a distance the boys could see in the sky the electrical glow of the Fair, but hereabouts all was in shadow.

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Massive amounts of money have gone into a temporary structure to wow the world while the neighborhoods surrounding it sit in its shadow, depleted of all sustenance, no shimmering electricity, no fanfare, no safety. By being a testament to capitalism, the Chicago World's Fair succeeded far better than anybody could have guessed. A secluded area where no cost was too much to show the world what great improvements America could bestow the world while letting the surrounding areas fester in filth and poverty and the constant threat of physical danger.

Chapter 1: Section 3: Page 21: Line 11 (296)

 At length the car deposited them at a street-corner from which, the conductor assured them, it would be but a short walk to the Fairgrounds—or, as he chuckled, "depending on how late in the evening, a brisk run," and went on its way in metal-to-metal clangor and clopping.

* * * * * * * * * *

I dug out a map of Chicago at the time of the Columbian Exposition and worked out the exact corner that the lads would have been dropped off, considering it was the south side of the city and they'd only have a short walk.

No, of course I didn't. But that's what I think people expect from a blog like this! People who actually want some grand, nearly unintelligible discourse on Pynchon and all his novels aren't going to find that here. But the people who just want silliness and whimsy with maybe some accidental insight into the novel won't ever get that experience because the idea of a blog concentrating on every line of a novel they're probably never going to read aren't going to read this blog anyway!

I'm the worst at branding.

Anyway, I guess the south side of Chicago could be dangerous and this chuckle-head conductor thinks it's funny that these two kids could be killed on the way to the fair and also those horse-drawn conveyances must have been super noisy and I bet everything and everybody smelled really bad and can you imagine how many flies must have been covering everything?! Who are the maniacs who yearn for returning to eras of the past?! Oh sure! Please may I live in turn of the 19th century Chicago where the air reeks of cattle murder and mutilation and where I'm almost certainly living in poverty and where rich industrialists hire Pinkertons to bust in the heads of anybody trying desperately to improve the living conditions of every day folks and where immigrants are treated as sub-par human beings? Oh boy!

Imagine if Disneyland weren't based on fairy tales and imagination but realistic depictions of past eras? I bet I'd see far fewer posts on Facebook from friends who somehow think "staying young" means purchasing only items branded Disney.

The First Chapter Title

 The Light Over the Ranges

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The initial image evoked by this statement is a small avocado green kitchen range sitting up against a greasy peach wall with a two bulb light overhead (one bulb burnt out, the globe filled with the corpses of generations of flies and moths). I'm pretty sure that's not the kind of range Pynchon means.

I suppose he could mean a range of mountains. Or the ranges like in that folk song about that place where the deer play.

The light probably means that thing that we need because it's always night. See how we already have a theme developing? Day and light in every section so far (except the picture of the coin. But for all I know, the writing could be translated as "The main point of this book is to save Daylight Saving Time.").

The second image this statement evokes is of the Northern Lights which makes me think of Gravity's Rainbow and Slothrop's memory of watching the Northern Lights as a youngster and having it scare the feces out of him and his speculation on some other lights after.

"But what Lights were these? What ghosts in command? And suppose, in the next moment, all of it, the complete night, were to go out of control and curtains part to show us a winter no one has guessed at. . . ."

So I guess besides the Northern Lights, I'm also now thinking of the light of an atomic explosion. But that shouldn't matter in this book, right? It takes place (according to something I read. The back of the book?) between the Chicago's World Fair and World War One. So how would the atomic bomb fit in?

But then also ask yourself this! The atomic bomb would have fit in well in Gravity's Rainbow (even though the entire story takes place in Europe) and it's only mentioned in a cryptic newspaper headline Slothrop notices in a puddle which reads:

MB DRO
ROSHI

So it might exist in this novel as it did in Gravity's Rainbow, as a ghost or a phantom haunting practically everything. It's dramatic irony! We, the reader, know it's coming even if the characters don't know nor will ever know because the novel ends well before the bomb is even invented! I bet it's even a huge specter in Mason & Dixon!

Okay, so maybe I've wandered too far afield on this one. The light over the ranges could also just be symbolic of knowledge being spread. Or maybe it's literal and it's the light from the airship which begins the novel, or just the bright lights of the Chicago World's Fair.

I should declare right here in this section that I will be returning to various entries to add postscripts to them as I get further and further into the novel. So just think of these entries as fluid. Maybe I should also explain that I'm not reading the novel one line at a time and then writing about that line before reading the next line! I'm actually reading the book and then, later, when I'm sitting around bored because none of my friends are playing Apex, writing these entries.

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First Postscript

After having read a bit more, it seems, possibly, that the lights over the ranges could be UFOs.