Lot 49 essays
hankhank at ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
hankhank at ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
Thu Apr 3 18:12:41 CST 1997
Those two other essays in _New Essays on ... Lot 49_ which
have not been mentioned explicitly, are good, too.
Debra Castillo on Borges and Pynchon, and N. Katherine Hayles on
metaphor, entropy, and Lot 49.
I don't know of their pedagogical usefulness, though. But all the
essays in that collection differ strongly from, say, Robert Newman's
chapter on Lot 49. Newman's book as whole makes one cite Samuel
Johnson: it is both good and original. What is good is not original
and what is original is not good.
But if one teaches Lot 49 in connection with, say, modernism, one
may want to check Wendy Steiner's essay on Waste Land and Lot 49.
I don't remenber its title, but it is to be found in the collection
Reconstructing American Literary History, ed. Sacvan Bercovitch.
And whenever one wants to relate _Lot 49_ to Black Humor, in Steven
Weisenburger's _Fables of Subversion_ the book compares favorably
indeed with such one-joke books as T Southern's and K Vonnegut's.
There are no doubt quite a few good Lot 49 essays that have been
left unmentioned. But now I want to returm to Katherine Hayles. She
will give a talk here at UT on Saturday (on Philip K. Dick...) as
a part of the conference (best, Heikki):
> From Energy to Information:
> Representation in Science, Art and Literature
>
> The University of Texas at Austin,
> April 3-5, 1997
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A symposium/workshop
>
> co-sponsored by the
>
> Center for the Study of Modernism
> (Dept. of Art and Art History, UT)
>
> and the
>
> Center for Interactive Arts Studies
> (College of Fine Arts, UT)
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Co-organized by
>
> Linda Dalrymple Henderson, Dept. of Art and Art History, UT,
>
> and
>
> Bruce Clarke, Dept. of English, Texas Tech University,
>
> with
>
> Richard Shiff, Director, Center for the Study of Modernism, UT
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> This interdisciplinary symposium/workshop provides a unique
> opportunity to examine the representation of scientific concepts
> ranging from energy to information in the art and literature of modern
> and postmodern culture. By the later nineteenth century,
> thermodynamics and electromagnetism had radically challenged
> prevailing conceptions of physical reality. Many innovations in modern
> art and literature are rooted in the rapid cultural reception of
> scientific ideas such as entropy and X-rays, a situation paralleled in
> our time by the wide interest in information technology and virtual
> reality. The goal of the conference is to give contemporary
> researchers in the humanities and sciences an enhanced appreciation of
> the historical contexts of and theoretical connections among
> scientific ideas, technological developments, and cultural productions
> in the later 19th and 20th centuries.
>
> The symposium/workshop offers two plenary addresses by distinguished
> scholars: historian and critic W. J. T. Mitchell and Nobel
> prize-winning physicist and chemist Ilya Prigogine. Five panels will
> bring together scholars from the fields of history of science, art,
> and literature (as well as media studies, anthropology and
> architecture in certain cases) to investigate practices of
> representation and inscription in scientific texts and illustrations
> and in literary and artistic images at particular historical moments.
> Two-hour sessions, with 30-minute papers presented by the three
> speakers, will allow ample time for full audience discussion. By
> regrouping panelists with graduate students and audience members,
> lunch-time focus groups will provide the opportunity of meeting
> invited speakers and discussing topics related to their specific
> interests.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> SCHEDULE
>
> Thursday, April 3, 1997
>
> 5:45-6:50 Registration/Reception (Art Building Lobby)
>
> 7:00 First plenary address:
> W. J. T. Mitchell, University of Chicago, "Dinosaurs Decoded"
> (Art Auditorium, 1.102)
>
> Friday, April 4, 1997
>
> All remaining conference sessions will be held at Thompson
> Conference Center, adjacent to Art Building and Fine Arts
> Building.
>
> 8:30-9:30 Registration (Coffee/Refreshments)
>
> 9:30 Panel: "The Cultures of Thermodynamics"
> (Moderator: Bruce J. Hunt, UT)
>
> Norton Wise, Princeton University (History of Science),
> "The Gender of Energy and Time"
>
> Bruce Clarke, Texas Tech University (Literature),
> "Models of Energy: Entropy and Space from H. G. Wells to Yevgeny
> Zamyatin"
>
> Charlotte Douglas, New York University (History of Art),
> "Energetic Abstraction, or the Forces of Representation"
>
> 11:30-1:00 Lunch (including focus groups with panelists)
>
> 1:00 Panel: "Ether and Electromagnetism: Capturing the Invisible
> (Moderator: Bruce Clarke, Texas Tech University)
>
> Bruce J. Hunt, University of Texas (History of Science),
> "Lines of Force, Swirls of Ether"
>
> Ian F. A. Bell, University of Keele (Literature),
> "Modernist Energies: Ezra Pound and the Ether-eal"
>
> Linda Dalrymple Henderson, University of Texas (History of Art),
> "Vibratory Modernism: Early 20th-Century Art and the Ether"
>
> 3:00-3:30 Break (Coffee/Refreshments)
>
> 3:30 Panel: "Traces and Inscriptions: Diagraming Forces"
> (Moderator: Linda Dalrymple Henderson, UT)
>
> Robert Brain, Harvard University (History of Science),
> "'The Language of the Phenomena Themselves': The Graphic Method
> and the Instruments of Scientific Modernism"
>
> Charles Altieri, Berkeley (Literature),
> "Force as Meaning: Abstraction and the Limits of Representation"
>
> Douglas Kahn, University of Technology, Sydney (Media Arts),
> "A Portrait of Beethoven Repeated 50 Times Per Second"
>
> 5:30-5:55 Break (Wine and Cheese)
>
> 6:00 Second plenary address:
> Ilya Prigogine, University of Texas and Free University,
> Brussels,
> "Nature as Construction"
>
> 7:30 Cocktails
>
> 8:00 Dinner and Party (University of Texas Alumni Center
> Ballroom)
>
> Saturday, April 5, 1997
>
> 9:00-9:45 Coffee/Refreshments
>
> 9:45 Panel: "Representing Information"
> (Moderator: Wayne Andersen, Professor at Large, MIT)
>
> David Tomas, University of Ottawa (Anthropology),
> "On the Imagination's Horizon Line: Mechanical Drawing and
> Babbage's Calculating Engines"
>
> N. Katherine Hayles, UCLA (Literature),
> "The Android, the Paranoid and the Schizoid: The Anxiety of
> Boundaries in Second-Wave Cybernetics and Philip K. Dick's
> Fiction"
>
> Kristine Stiles, Duke University (History of Art),
> "Parallel Worlds: Representing Information at the Intersection of
> Art, Technology, and Psychic Phenomena"
>
> 12:00 Lunch
>
> 1:30 Panel "Virtual Spaces/Virtual Bodies"
> (Moderator: Michael Benedikt, Architecture, University of Texas)
>
> Timothy Lenoir, Stanford University (History of Science),
> "The Virtual Edge: Postmodern Surgery"
>
> Gregory Ulmer, University of Florida (Literature),
> "The Visual Mood in Online Authoring"
>
> Marcos Novak, University of Texas and UCLA (Architecture),
> "After Territory"
>
> 3:30-4:00 Break (Refreshments)
>
> 4:00 Formal Wrap-up Session
> (Richard Shiff, University of Texas, and W. J. T. Mitchell,
> University of Chicago)
>
> 5:00 Closing Reception
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> REGISTRATION INFORMATION
>
> To obtain copies of registration materials, e-mail to
> nrgy2inf at ccwf.cc.utexas.edu or send requests to Energy to Information
> Symposium, c/o Center for Modernism, Dept. of Art and Art History,
> University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712-1104 (tel: 512.471.7757).
> (512.471.3121).
>
> FEES
> General conference registration package $70.00 (Includes 2
> lunches and Friday night dinner)
>
> UT Austin faculty and students fee (no meals) $15.00
>
> Non-UT attendee fee (no meals) $35.00
>
> Meal tickets (included in general fee above):
> Friday lunch $7.50 Friday dinner $20.00 Saturday lunch $7.50
>
> REGISTRATION DEADLINE
> The conference registration deadline is March 15. Plan to
> register early, since seating is limited. After March 15
> registration will be possible only on a space-available basis and
> at an additional $5.00 cost.
>
> Direct questions about registration to the Registrar at the Thompson
> Conference Center at 512.471.3121.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> CONFERENCE HOTELS
>
> Blocks of rooms at a special conference rate have been reserved at two
> hotels in Austin. Please call the hotel/motel of your choice directly
> to make reservations, mentioning that you are with the "Energy to
> Information" symposium. All reservations will require a deposit or
> credit card to confirm.
>
> Holiday Inn--Town Lake
> 20 North Interstate 35 Austin, Texas 78701
> Tel: 512.472.8211 / FAX: 512.472.4636
>
> The Holiday Inn--Town Lake is situated on the shores of Town Lake
> in downtown Austin, about 2 miles from the UT campus and 4 miles
> from the airport. The conference rate is $85 for all rooms. The
> hotel offers free transportation from the airport, and shuttle
> buses will assist conference attendees traveling to and from the
> campus conference site. Reservations must be finalized by March
> 17, 1997 and should be made well in advance of that to be certain
> of receiving the conference rate.
>
> The Rodeway Inn at University
> 2900 North Interstate 35 Austin, Texas 78705
> Tel: 512.477.6395 / FAX: 512.477.1830
>
> The Rodeway Inn is a two-block walk east of the Thompson
> Conference Center and the UT campus. It is a little over one mile
> from the airport and two miles from the downtown area. The
> conference rate for single occupancy is $50 per night for single
> occupancy, $55 for double occupancy. All reservations must be
> finalized by March 20, 1997 and should be made promptly to assure
> the conference rate.
>
> A number of other national hotel chains are represented on or near
> Town Lake in downtown Austin, including the Four Seasons, Hyatt,
> Radisson, and Marriott hotels, should conference attendees prefer to
> obtain accommodations at regular rates at any of these hotels.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> AUSTIN ATTRACTIONS
>
> Located in central Texas, Austin, the state capital, offers a blend of
> mild temperatures (average 68 degrees in April), entertainment (a wide
> variety of live music venues, ranging from blues and jazz to country
> and rock), and cultural landmarks--all in a beautiful setting at the
> edge of the Texas Hill Country. On the campus of the University of
> Texas the Huntington Art Gallery features important collections of
> 20th century American art and Latin American art. The Harry Ransom
> Humanities Research Center contains world-renowned manuscript
> collections of British, American, and French literature as well as
> major holdings in its History of Science collections. The displays and
> archival holdings of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library
> chronicle the career of LBJ and the decade of the 1960s during his
> service as Vice-President and President. For more information about
> Austin, see the Austin Visitor's Guide on the World Wide Web
> (http://visit.ci.austin.tx.us) or write or call the Austin Convention
> and Visitor's Bureau (201 E. 2nd St., Austin, Texas 78701; tel:
> 1.800.926.2282).
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> For specific symposium questions, contact:
>
> nrgy2inf at ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
>
> or
>
> Linda Dalrymple Henderson, Energy to Information Symposium,
> c/o Center for the Study of Modernism,
> Dept. of Art and Art History, University of Texas,
> Austin, Texas 78712-1104
http://www.ar.utexas.edu/centrifuge/e2i.html
More information about the Pynchon-l
mailing list