Systems, etc.

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

Observed:
" During the Bannana Breakfast, Pirate arranges the chains of molecules of   
the various bannana delicacies into seductive aromas.  Later Jamf arranges
the molecules to produce Imipolex G.  Our control of molecules through
systems like cooking or science can be used to produce widely differing
results.  Its true, systems, our ideologies, distort our world view, keep us
from seeing things as they are; but without any world view, without any
system we are blind and can see nothing.  Isn't that the paradox every artist
and every work of art wrestles with?"

Good point--and one especially germane to American Lit in general and Pynchon in
particular.  As Tony Tanner has pointed out, Americans are obsessed with two
great fears--the fear of absolute control (the nightmare of the militias) and
the fear of loss of control and the coming of chaos (the nightmare of the 
statists).  Pynchon has always played these two elements off each other--Profane
and Stencil, the double face of the Tristero, Katje's fear of abandonment by
Blicero and Pointsman, u.s.w.  

The theme also ties to P's use of entropy--in both physics and communications,
entropy is a paradoxical state.  In physics, it represents disorder--but
since all molecules are randomly dispersed, it also represents undifferentiated
sameness.  In communications, one cannot send a message if there is too much
"noise" in the signal, so redundancy is necessary in order to get the message
across.  But too much redundancy leads to a total lack of meaning (say "Rich,
chocolaty goodness" over and over).  The same themes continue in VINELAND but
they get their fullest play, of course, in GR. Difference-in-order seems to
be Pynchon's ideal state--a family reunion picnic, say, in which everyone does
his or her own thing but as part of an integrated totality.  The ideal occupation?
To be a Sorting Demon, restoring a semblance of order out of chaos, like
Meatball Mulligan.  But then those victories are usually transient at best.

(or not . . . )

Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)