Maximilian Heinrich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
My paper aims to show that Pynchon uses Against the Day as a means to refect on how political and economic systems work in reality and affect those who have ascribed to the related sets of beliefs. In order to do that, Pynchon picks a signifcant historical period, the height of the Gilded Age and Second Industrial Revolution, during which numerous alternatives challenged the system in place. He then not only depicts but actually constructs both the dominant system (i.e. democratic capitalism) and the alternatives (e.g. the specifc anarchism of striking miners in Colorado) as equally signifcant shots in the dark. While I thus agree with previous research stating that Pynchon generally stresses the potential of historical crossroads and arbitrariness of systems, I will extend this argument and explain how Pynchon shows the inherent limitations of infexible systems, how they affect the people who adhere to these systems, how that in turn – as in the case of capitalism in AtD– can contribute to a system’s prevalence, and, as a result, signifcantly limit the potential of historical crossroads. Pynchon constructs Against the Day in a way that illustrates how every political and economic system was a shot in the dark and that only those who profited the most declared it a success. Every system or doctrine favors certain natural human tendencies while discouraging others. Instead of merely blaming the Captains of Industry for their ruthlessness, Pynchon shows (with Scarsdale Vibe) how their human nature and fundamental beliefs proved advantageous in the given system and either encouraged their thinking or helped to establish it in the frst place. Pynchon’s depiction of history thus goes beyond the approach of most historians by indicating the interconnectedness of systems and the individuals affected by them. Pynchon draws on the wide range of possible reactions to this situation—exploitation of the system in place, blind acceptance, paranoia, psychosis, escapist drug-abuse. Most importantly, individual behavior eventually feeds back into the given system and either challenges, buttresses, or helps to supplant it. In AtD, Pynchon shows how opposition reinforced and strengthened democratic capitalism and thus actually contributed to its prevalence.
Once the interconnectedness between individuals and systems is understood, the potential of historical crossroads (to which Pynchon points in AtD) should be re-evaluated. Since each political structure is based on a certain anthropology and favors particular behavior, individuals might be relatively limited in their choices. They choose a system or are chosen by one, often by birth, upbringing, and education, which – once individuals have ascribed to the respective set of beliefs – in return provides simple solutions for all future choices. The system’s infexibility is thus passed on to individuals and diminishes the likelihood of drastic change or abandonment of the prevailing system. Pynchon refects on how human beings limit themselves by creating infexible structures/sets of beliefs and how this affects the history of the human race. In practice, a political shot in the dark like the constitution of the United States (which combined various different infuences at the time) can establish a nationstate with a specifc set of doctrines which are then passed on to its people in a way that leaves them (or at least the majority) unable to overcome the system precisely because their thinking is limited by the nation’s doctrines. While alternatives are available they might oppose fundamental assumptions of the system in place and, in turn, be opposed by the people living under this system. Approaching American history as a continuing struggle of the people with the provided set of beliefs casts a different light on these historical crossroads. In AtD, Pynchon repeatedly shows that they often merely create a widely perceived “sense of overture and possibility” (like the Tunguska Event) that will eventually pass and the people will go “back once again to seeking only orgasm, hallucination, stupor, sleep, to fetch them through the night and prepare them against the day” (AtD 805), just as they did all along. Pynchon thus implicitly raises the question as to what extent individuals are dependent on rigid structures and how far they can alter their world in moments where systems are only about to take shape and numerous alternatives are at hand.