reduction of possibilities and as a sure path to the horrendous slaughterhouse of Western civilization, World War I. This more or less inexorable march towards the apocalyptic bloodbath of Flanders is a crucial theme in Against the Day, but naturally the intrepid balloon boys from the Chums of Chance have no idea of this future event when they land their skyship at the edge of the fair. They soon forget their unpleasant encounter with the stinking killing-floors of Chicago and embark on an adventurous exploration of the White City. However, the boys soon stray away from the brightly lit center of the exposition and wander into the shadowy periphery, which is not represented in the official brochures: Observers of the Fair had remarked how, as one moved upand down its Midway, the more European, civilized, and … well, frankly, white exhibits located closer to the center of the “White City” seemed to be, whereas the farther from that alabaster Metropolis one ventured, the more evident grew the signs of cultural darkness and savagery. To the boys it seemed that they were making their way through a separate, lampless world, out beyond some obscure threshold, with its own economic life, social habits and codes, aware of itself as having little if anything to do with the official Fair. […] A Zulu theatrical company re-enacted the massacre of British troops at Isandhlwana. Pygmies sang Christian hymns in the Pygmy dialect, Jewish klezmer ensembles filled the night with unearthly clarionet solos, Brazilian Indians allowed themselves to be swallowed