THOMAS PYNCHON

American Novelist

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    • Pynchon Early Stories Pirate Editions
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    • Slow Learner (1984)
    • Vineland (1990)
    • Mason & Dixon (1997)
    • Against the Day (2006)
    • Inherent Vice (2009)
    • Bleeding Edge (2013)
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Plot Grid of Against the Day

PAGES PLACE MAJOR CHARACTERS FOCAL POINTS YEAR
[as indicated by historical events]
359-73 Colorado to New Orleans

[and on to Mexico]

Reef Traverse

Stray Briggs & baby Jesse

Flaco the Anarchist

Wolfe Tone O’Rooney [“Eusebio Gomez”]

Ruperta Chirpingdon-Groin

family drama

Kieselguhr Kid

Anarchism

Mexican Revolution

1903
374-96 Mexico (El Paso to Guanajuato; then toward Sierra Madre] Frank Traverse

Ewball Oust

Dwayne Provecho

“El Espinero” (Tarahumara duende)

Sloat Fresno

Iceland Spar

amalgamation

Wild West (ÔMexican’ version)

bilocation (Frank dreams of an airship)

lawlessness (are bandidos Anarchists?)

indigenous myth/spirituality

drugs (hallucinogenic)

1904-

(refs to Huertistas & Flores Mag—n brothers)

397-448 Candlebrow University (Ohio); then to Inner Asia to under-sand battle Chums of Chance

Prof. Vanderjuice

Dr. Zoot

Alonzo Meatman

Roswell Bounce (inventor; nemesis of Vibe)

Capt. Zane Toadflax (of the Saksaul)

Stilton Gaspereaux

Time Travel conference

maps of unknown places

(Sfincuino Itinerary)

Trespassers (escapees from the future)

Hypops equipment (for travel under sand)

Petroleum

Manichean philosophy

 
449-59 Colorado to Candlebrow U. Merle Rideout

Roswell Bounce

Time Travel conference

light/energy as new gold rush

Quaternions

1904-?
460-71 El Paso to New Mexico to Colorado Frank Traverse

Mayva Traverse

Rev. Moss Gatlin

family drama

Cripple Creek miners’ strike

1904-
472-88 Colorado back to Midwest (Decatur, Ill.; Wall o’ Death, Mo.) Deuce Kindred

Lake Traverse

Tace Boilster (Lake’s friend/confidante)

family drama

fathers, daughters; co-dependence; “saving” men

1905- (a few years)
489-504 London/

Oxford, England

Neville and Nigel

Yasmeen Halfcourt

Cyprian Lakewood

spying, surveillance

Quaternions

Time Travel

time-based weapon

early 1900s
505-47 en route to Europe on steamer Stupendica; Ostend, Belgium Kit Traverse

Dally Rideout

Erlys Zombini

Zombini family

Root Tubsmith (fellow math. student)

4 “Belgian nihilists”; also Rocco & Pino

PlŽiade & Piet Woevre

Omeki Tshrigane

family drama (Dally’s real father); adventure story

ocean liner battleship

bilocation

Quanternion conference in Ostend

Anarchists (Young Congo)

African colonialism; King Leopold

“death by mayonnaise”

spying, surveillance

1904
548-67 Ostend and Bruges, Belgium Chums of Chance

Kit Traverse

Root Tubsmith

Omeki Tshrigane

Trespassers (WW I looming)

time-based weapon (calcite)

spying, surveillance

1905?
568-87 Venice Dally Rideout

Hunter Penhallow

Andrea Tancredi

Principe/sa Spongiatosta

Art and politics

Hell; chaos / order

[p. 585, Hunter refers to destruction of The City p. 155]

1905-06
588-604 Gottingen, Germany Kit Traverse

Yasmeen Halfcourt

GŸnther von Quassel

Gottlob & Humfried

Renfrew/ Werfner

Quaternionists vs. Vectorists

Theosophy, spiritualism

Riemann; Zeta function

1905
605-614 London Lew Basnight chaos/order

spying, surveillance

Shambhala

antiquities

sinister gas

 
615-636 Gottingen [Gunther returns to family plantation in Mexico at end] Kit Traverse

Yasmeen Halfcourt

GŸnther von Quassel

Dr. Dingkopf

Foley Walker

a jelly doughnut

Aether

Jews

Theosophy, Spiritualism

 
637-651 Mexico (Tampico to El Paso) Gunther von Quassel

Frank Traverse

Ewbal Oust

Dwayne Provecho

Wolfe Tone O’Reilly

Stray Briggs

family drama

Mexican Revolution

Anarchism

1904
652-660 Austrian/ Swiss border at Alps Reef Traverse

Fulvio, Ramiz, Nikos, Gerhardt [miners]

Ruperta Chirpingdon-Groin

Scarsdale Vibe

Lionel Swome (TWIT agent)

mining, dynamite

Tþtzelwurm [link to Arctic figure: indigenous beliefs]

Anarchism

European elite pleasures: spas, gambling

 
661-677 Austrian/ Swiss border at Alps

[Yashmeen to Vienna &Budapest at end; Kit to Inner Asia]

Kit Traverse

Reef Traverse

Ruperta Chirpingdon-Groin

Mme. Eskimoff

Spirituality [sŽance where Reef speaks with Webb]

European elite pleasures: spas, gambling

 
678-93 London Lew Basnight

Nigel & Neville

Renfrew/ Werfner

Col. Max Khäutsch [was Archduke’s bodyguard in Chicago, 1st chapter]

bilocation

spying/surveillance/detection

Tarot

 
697-723 Trieste; Vienna Cyprian Latewood

Derrick Theign [F.O.]

Col. Max KhaŸtsch

Misha & Grisha

Foreign Office; international intrigue

vampirism

Hell

“a few years out of university”: 1905?
Pages: 1 2 3

Visit the Pynchon Wikis…

Highly detailed guides to each of Pynchon's novels, including page-by-page annotations, alphabetical indexes, reviews, and a whole lot more ...

PynchonWiki.com
Inherent ViceBleeding Edge
Mason & DixonAgainst the Day
Gravity's RainbowVineland
V.The Crying of Lot 49

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ThomasPynchon.com (formerly the HyperArts Pynchon Pages) came online in 1997. With the publication of Against the Day in 2007, the alphabetical guides to Pynchon's novels were migrated to the Pynchon Wikis.

This website is affiliated with neither Mr Pynchon nor his representatives; rather, it's aligned with the community of folks who enjoy reading Pynchon's work — and digging deeper.

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