This essay argues that comparative literature should not be theorized in terms of how comparison appears, but rather how it does not fully appear. By focusing on the (in)comparability of catastrophic events, Pynchon’s work suggests that comparison is “avisual,” since it takes place as the splitting apart of the day.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.