Abstract
The creation of so-called alternative worlds in his fiction has been seminal in establishing Thomas Pynchon as a postmodern writer. From the mysterious worlds of lady V. and the Tristero postal system in his early novels to the fictive worlds of a sailing airship beneath desert sand and the Deep Web and the software DeepArcher in his later fiction, these alternative realities have been investigated by distinguished critics from different points of view. Regarding the possibility of a post-national imagination in Pynchon’s fiction, in relation to his alternative worlds, several acclaimed scholars have prominently addressed this issue. Nevertheless, the narrative of Against the Day still needs to be meticulously analysed. This essay aims to investigate how Pynchon’s post-national vision calls into question and resists the overreaching metanarrative of nationalism in the world. By analysing the alternative realities, in connection with the issue of temporality, this essay attempts to depict the instantiation and development of a post-national vision from Mason & Dixon to Against the Day which questions the long-established dominance of nationalism in the world
Highlights
In episode 35 of Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon we learn from the Reverend Cherrycoke how the members of the British Royal Society, and their French counterparts, “preach” (1997, 347) the invaluable significance of “Reason” over other explanations of the world’s matters: Royal Society members and French Encyclopaedists are in the Chariot, availing themselves whilst they may – of any occasion to preach the Gospels of Reason, denouncing all that once was Magic, though too often in smirking tropes upon the Church of Rome, visitations, bleeding statues, medical impossibilities, — no, no, far too foreign
As a consequence of such a stand by the Royal Society, the Reverend mentions, “These times are unfriendly toward Worlds alternative to this one.”. This short, but meaningful, passage from Mason & Dixon might encapsulate what lies at the centre of Pynchon’s post-national vision in the novel. Moving from this premise as the essence of my analysis, I am going to tackle three significant issues in the introduction which I will be using throughout my paper: the question of alternative worlds, what post-nationalism means in my essay, and the relation between Pynchon’s alternative realities and the postnational phenomena in Mason & Dixon and Against The Day
What lacks from Pöhlmann’s inspiring study is an examination of similar post-national phenomena in Against the Day. He mentions that this novel “constitutes another part of Pynchon’s postnational imagination,” only briefly does he provide instances where Against the Day suggests a post-national view. In light of this brief introduction, my paper aims to investigate how Pynchon’s fiction from Mason & Dixon to Against the Day depicts a post-national vision that questions the abstract idea of the nation as a metanarrative that has subsumed other narratives in the world
Summary
In episode 35 of Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon we learn from the Reverend Cherrycoke how the members of the British Royal Society, and their French counterparts, “preach” (1997, 347) the invaluable significance of “Reason” over other explanations of the world’s matters: Royal Society members and French Encyclopaedists are in the Chariot, availing themselves whilst they may – of any occasion to preach the Gospels of Reason, denouncing all that once was Magic, though too often in smirking tropes upon the Church of Rome,— visitations, bleeding statues, medical impossibilities, — no, no, far too foreign. He explains that “Pynchon maps the bloody trail” (36) that nation-states have left behind, “rather than merely denying their hegemonic status,” in so far as “nations are very much a part of global history.” With all this in mind, perhaps the most significant work in terms of a post-national reading of Pynchon’s fiction is Sascha Pöhlmann’s 2010 analysis of Gravity’s Rainbow and Mason & Dixon. He mentions that this novel “constitutes another part of Pynchon’s postnational imagination,” only briefly does he provide instances where Against the Day suggests a post-national view In light of this brief introduction, my paper aims to investigate how Pynchon’s fiction from Mason & Dixon to Against the Day depicts a post-national vision that questions the abstract idea of the nation as a metanarrative that has subsumed other narratives in the world. I seek to show the representation and development of such a post-national perspective, from Mason & Dixon to Against the Day, by analysing the alternative worlds in the novels, not least of all the fictive temporal worlds
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