TRP Themes

[Tresy Kilbourne]

> I have difficulty with using entropy as THE theme in Pynchon's work too, but
> for other reasons.  As much as the novels are about loss of order, and loss
> of control, it seems they are also very much about convergence, and bringing
> things full circle. 
This reminds me of a book I stumbled across about 10 years ago that 
vindicated much of what I sensed was going on in Pynchon's universe: 
Order Out of Chaos, by Ilya Prigogine. IP is a Nobel Laureate in physics. 
The book addresses the central paradox of Newton's Second Law: if the 
universe is getting increasingly disordered, how does an ordered system 
like life come into existence? Short answer: fluctuations in systems 
under far-from-equilibrium conditions (i.e., severe stress) can give rise 
to "spontaneous self-organization". To me, this is why Pynchon is always 
investigating "cusps" and various other singularities in human history, 
because it's at these junctures that possibilities for renewal exist. I 
can do Prigogine's book justice here, but leafing through it just now 
reminded me again of how many points of contact there are with Pynchon's 
own deployment of science. I recommend this book highly. I don't know if 
it's still in print though.


________
Tresy Kilbourne
Seattle, WA 
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