PLOT GRID OF PYNCHON'S AGAINST THE DAY PAGES PLACE MAJOR CHARACTERS FOCAL POINTS YEAR [as indicated by historical events] 3-80 Chicago Chums of Chance Merle Rideout (and daughter Dally) Prof. Vanderjuice Scarsdale Vibe/ Foley Walker Lew Basnight Nate Privett [White City Investigations] Anarchism Columbian Exposition spying/surveillance/detection global domination frontier, colonialism Aether, light, electricity [backstory for Lew and Merle; at end Merle & Dally leave for Denver where they meet Webb] 1893 81-106 Colorado Webb Traverse family (Mayva Dash; Reef, Frank, Lake, Kit) Rev. Moss Gatlin Veikko Rautavaara Nikola Tesla Foley Walker Anarchism labor struggles in mines class warfare dynamite Gold/Silver standard Aether, light, electricity [at end, Foley persuades Kit to go to Yale] 1899 107-55 North Pole [via Telluric Interior; ending in cityÑNew York?] Chums of Chance The Vormance Expedition (Hunter Penhallow, Fleetwood Vibe) Capt. Igor Padzhinitoff's airship (Russian rivals of Chums) antipodal geography Upper Hierarchy/Command Hollow Earth Iceland spar (calcite) polar expeditions/exploration Quaternonism indigenous myths; supernatural occurrences [Figure destroys city; this undateable event becomes mythic] 156-70 New Haven [and Vibe mansion on Long Island] Kit Traverse Scarsdale Vibe Colfax Vibe (athletic son, also at Yale) R. Wilshire Vibe (brother of Scarsdale; vaudeville empresario) Ivy-League privilege maps of unknown places African explorations family drama (of the rich) class warfare 1900-1903 171-187 Colorado [and on to England via Anasazi ruins and Galveston] Lew Basnight Nigel & Neville [Wildean English dandies] Kieselguhr Kid [name of mythic dynamiter--Webb?] spying/surveillance/detection Anarchism drugs (cyclomite) 1900 (Galveston hurricane) 188-218 Colorado Webb Traverse Mayva and Lake Traverse Veikko Rautavaara Deuce Kindred Sloat Fresno Jimmy Drop hired guns [Sloat & Deuce] family drama Wild West 1903 [Webb's death "ten years ago" in 1913, p. 1005] 199-218 Utah-Colorado [Jeshimon is a kind of Underworld, with its own rules] Frank Traverse Reef Traverse Stray [Estrella] Briggs Jimmy Drop [baby Jesse born at end] family drama Wild West Kieselguhr Kid law(lessness) homeopathy Hell bilocation [Reef is both at the Pole and in Co. as he reads novel] 1903-4 219-42 London; Oxford (Groton) Nigel & Neville Lew Basnight Yashmeen Halfcourt (and her Groton lovers) Cyprian Latewood Mme. Eskimoff rival professors Renfrew/Werfner Theosophists (TWIT) spiritualism Tarot spying/surveillance/detection (Psychical) global domination 1900- 243-60 Venice Chums of Chance Capt. Igor Padzhinitoff's airship maps of unknown places (Sfincuino Itinerary) Upper Hierarchy Iceland Spar Campanile of Venice 1902 [Campanile falls] 260-72 Colorado Lake Traverse Deuce Kindred Sloat Fresno family drama 1903-04 273-317 Colorado [and on to Mexico at end, with Frank in disguise as Pancho] Frank Traverse Wren Provenance (Harvard anthropologist) Ellmore Disco Bob Meldrum Merle Rideout family drama Aztln gunmen; Wild West myth Tesla vs. Edison Kieselguhr Kid gold/silver amalgamation with Iceland Spar Tommyknockers (little people of the mines) 1904 318-35 New Haven (and Long Island Sound) Kit Traverse Prof. Vanderjuice Colfax Vibe Nikola Tesla spying/surveillance class warfare Tesla's experiments (tower) 1903? 336-57 New York (and on ship bound for Europe at end) Dahlia (Dally) Rideout R. Wilshire Vibe Erlys Zombini Luca Zombini family family drama vaudeville, play-acting magician's tricks Iceland Spar Venice's mirrors 1903? 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 Pliade & 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 Gnther 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 Gnther 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 [sance where Reef speaks with Webb] European elite pleasures: spas, gambling 678-93 London Lew Basnight Nigel & Neville Renfrew/ Werfner Col. Max Khatsch [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 Khatsch Misha & Grisha Foreign Office; international intrigue vampirism Hell "a few years out of university": 1905? 724-47 Venice Scarsdale Vibe Hunter Penhallow Dally Rideout Kit Traverse Reef Traverse Andrea Tancredi Principe/sa Spongiatosta [agent for Derrick Theign] apocalypse (Hunter's "symbolist" paintings) assasination (attempted) Anarchism European elite pleasures: spas, gambling 1905? 748-778 Kashgar [trek toward Siberia; Lake Baikal incident] Kit Traverse Auberon Halfcourt [F.O.] Col. Yevgeny Prokladka [AH's Russian "double"] Capt. Igor Padzhinitoff's airship Doosra [prophet] Dwight Prance family drama (Yashmeen's adoptive father) Shambhala prophecy, revelation Foreign Office; international intrigue maps to unknown places 1906-08 779-791 Tunguska, Siberia [trek back westward via Tuva] Kit Traverse Dwight Prance Fleetwood Vibe Chums of Chance [take Dwight with them] Tunguska Event Tesla experiments Quaternion weapon 1908 792-797 Siberia Chums of Chance [repudiating Upper Command] Tunguska Event 1908 797-805 Venice Dally Rideout Cyprian Latewood Reef Traverse European elite pleasures: spas, gambling Foreign Office; international intrigue 1906-08 806-48 Vienna to Trieste [Yashmeen]; Vienna to Bosnia & trek to Salonica via mountains [Cyprian] Yashmeen Halfcourt Cyprian Latewood Ratty McHugh; Bevis Moustleigh [F.O.] Misha & Grisha Col. Khatsch Vlado Clissan Damilo Ashkil spying, surveillance, detection Foreign Office; international intrigue "Idiotics Office" Balkans self-determination late 1908-09 849-863 Nice to Venice Reef Traverse Yashmeen Halfcourt Vlado Clissan Rocco & Pino Derrick Theign assasination [Vlado] European elite pleasures: spas, gambling Foreign Office; international intrigue 1908-09? 864-891 Venice (then the triangle moves toward Pyrenees) Cyprian Latewood Derrick Theign [now "mad"] Principe/sa Spongiatosta Ratty McHugh; Bevis Moistleigh Yashmeen Halfcourt Reef Traverse [triangle begins] Wolfe Tone O'Reilly Hunter Penhallow's paintings; Hell revenge drama [Vlado's Uskok people get Theign] Carnevale, masks ghosts (Reef dreams of father again) Anarchism gambling 1908-09? 892-918 London (Kit and Dally meet in Szeged, Hungary) Dally Rideout Hunter Penhallow Ruperta Chirpingdon-Groin (agent of TWIT) Arturo Naunt (sculptor) Clive Crouchmas R. Wilshire Vibe Lew Basnight vaudeville, stage angel of death statues Spiritualism, Tarot spying, surveillance (Dally) Quaternion weapon (Japanese have it; 906) 1909 (RVW premiere, 896) 919-930 Mexico (Chihuahua) Frank Traverse Ewball Oust Wren Provenance El Espinero Mexican Revolution Aztln (not unlike Shambhala; Frank's dream 925 also prefigures Mexico City during decena trgica) indigenous spirituality drugs (hallucinogenic) 1911 (Casas Grandes) 931-975 along the Riviera: Biarritz to Yz-les-Bains; then into Balkans (Zagreb, Beograd, Transylvania, Valley of Roses, convent in Bulgarian mtns.; then, as refugeees, to Corfu via Albania) Reef Traverse Yashmeen Halfcourt Cyprian Latewood Ratty McHugh (and two suffragette "wives") Prof. Sleepcoat baby Ljubica ("Violet") Auberon Halfcourt Umeki Tsurigane Anarchism's failure to account for feminism (934) maps, in code (Balkans=Belgian Congo) Anarchist's Golf musical anthropology hidden railway (Interdikt line) sinister gases; gas=light 953 convent of the Orpheus cult (link to Pythagoreans; another hidden city) "feminine aspect of God" 960 refugees Shambhala 1912 (invasion of Macedonia, First Balkan War, 963) 976-981 Mexico to Colorado (Denver) Stray Briggs Ewball Oust Mayva Traverse Oust family ("plutocrats") family drama (reunion) Colorado labor troubles 982-999 Mexico City; Chiapas; Vera Cruz to Colorado Frank Traverse El Espinero Gnther von Quassel Melpomene Dr. Willis Turnstone Wren Provenance Ewball Oust Mexican Revolution (Frank with Orozco) Anarchism dynamite (trains as weapons: mquina loca) cucuji beetles; dreams; indigenous spirituality late 1912-1913 1000-1017 Colorado (resorts;Trinidad/ Ludlow strike & tent colony) Scarsdale Vibe Foley Walker Frank Traverse Ewball Oust Mother Jones Stray Briggs Jesse Traverse Rev. Moss Gatlin Colorado labor troubles Balkan war (miners are refugees, 1003) family drama/revenge 1914 (Ludlow Massacre) 1018-1039 Counter-Earth (via Saharan Updraft); Switzerland; Los Angeles Chums of Chance (with Ksenjia & Pugnax) Capt. Padzhitinoff's airship Sodality of Aetheronauts Roswell Bounce Merle Rideout maps of unknown places alternate universe/history World War I Aether 1914- 1040-1062 Los Angeles Lew Basnight Lake Traverse Deuce Kindred Roswell Bounce Merle Rideout Luca Zambini spying/surveillance/detection alternate histories/universes photography/light noir crime fiction 1920's? (1043 "before the earthquake" of 1925; motion picture golden age; flappers--but Merle communicates with Dallybefore war ends..?) 1065- Paris (1915-17 in Torino, Italy); upper Pacific Northwest U.S. Dally Rideout Kit Traverse Reef Traverse Yashmeen Halfcourt (Ljubica 5 y.o.) Colfax Vibe Frank Traverse Stray Briggs (Ginger, Plebecula) Prof. Vanderjuice Chums of Chance World War I Shambhala maps 1915-18 1920s (p. 1084)