a novelty choking hazard

Tag Archives: Against-The-Day

Against the Day, paperback editions

Paperback editions of Against the Day have appeared in the USA and in the UK, and by odd coincidence, the painting used on the US edition (Nose Dive on the City, Tullio Crali, 1939) already appeared on these pages not … more…

Posted in literature | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Inside the Hollow Earth « strange maps

strange maps has an interesting historical run-down, very light on the linkage, but easily remedied by pointing Wikipedia at “hollow earth“. I might have posted on this subject while I was reading the relevant passage in Against the Day, but … more…

Posted in Biospheric, literature, Maps and Legends, mythology, reality hacking, The Void, weird shit | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Futuristic Air Travel (circa 1900)

Marvellous retro-futuristic image from Paleo-Future: According to the Library of Congress it was used as the cover for an issue of All Story magazine between 1900 and 1910. The most revolutionary aspect of this image may be the depiction of … more…

Posted in illustration, literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

links for 2007-07-13: Against the Day review

VQR » Back to the Future: On Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day Long and detailed review of Against The Day (tags: Thomas_Pynchon Against_The_Day William_Logan Virginia_Quarterly_Review)

Posted in literature, _del.icio.us | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Tesla’s Tower

Damn Interesting » Tesla’s Tower of Power “In this system that I have invented, it is necessary for the machine to get a grip of the earth,” he explained, “otherwise it cannot shake the earth. It has to have a … more…

Posted in history, literature, Science and Technology | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

links for 2007-02-09: AtD review

Denis Scheck: Roller coaster in the dark – signandsight Considerably more appreciative review of Against The Day (tags: Thomas_Pynchon Against_The_Day art_and_lit)

Posted in literature, _del.icio.us | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Miniature horses for the blind

While I was away in Liverpool, I took a break from Against the Day, and read most of Will Self’s Great Apes instead. I haven’t quite finished Great Apes yet, so I’m not about to write anything definitive — like … more…

Posted in weird shit | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

links for 2006-12-20: natural nuclear reactors, ball lightning, cash crop, ISS, behavioural separation

Oklo: Natural Nuclear Reactors – Fact Sheet (tags: nuclear reactors waste Africa geology) Texas State professor probes ball lightning phenomenon (tags: ball_lightning AtD Dahlia_Rideout) All-time high for homegrown as pot becomes top cash crop in US | Special reports | … more…

Posted in commerce, Cosmos, Dev, food and drink, Science and Technology, weird shit, _del.icio.us | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

links for 2006-12-05: Grammar of Ornament, Quaternions, Bearden, Bayes, Pollock, Tesla

Owen Jones and the Grammar of Ornament The images are from the 1868 edition of the Grammar of Ornament, by Owen Jones (tags: design ornament library) Quaternion – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia first major speed bump encountered in Against the … more…

Posted in art, design, history, literature, Science and Technology, War, weird shit, _del.icio.us | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Against the Day: Tetris reference?

Page 123: …Padzhitnoff’s own specialty being to arrange for bricks and masonry, always in the four block fragments which had become his “signature,” to fall on and damage targets… — a Tetris reference, if I’m not mistaken, unspotted (so far) … more…

Posted in literature | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment