MDMD(4) p.123 small re-write

[Matthew P Wiener]

Vaska writes:

>Matthew P Wiener responds to my query re. Eric's mention of Arcadia:

>>>>This also made me think of a Tom Stoppard play, Arcadia, in which
>>>>one of the principal characters dreams of a math complex enough to
>>>>explain real-world forms---a tree, a flower, a hillside [....]

>>>Isn't this one of the things those chaos theory people are trying to do?

>>Yes.  Tom Stoppard is quite explicit about this in his play.

>True: but is there someone on the list who knows a great deal more about
>this than either I or Tom Stoppard, that's the question.

Well, myself, and I'm sure others.

>							   Because it would
>be nice to have some intelligible light thrown on this topic [intelligible
>to lay people like myself, that is], especially now that we're reading _M&D_
>where "science" seems to come under so much criticism.

What specifically are you asking about?

I should mention that I generally have a dim view of scientific readings
of literature.  All too often they are written by the halfclued, chasing
after too many buzzword metaphors.  Things are doubly bad in the case of
TRP, since his own use of science tends to the vague and impressionistic,
or else correct but not integrated into the fiction.  His introduction
to SLOW LEARNER contains what reads like a mea culpa for godfathering
the entropy-made-stupid fashion.

Overall, though, M&D is an improvement in Pynchon's use of science.  He
seems to know what he is talking about in astronomy, and furthermore he
uses it to develop and mirror his themes rather well.  Off-hand I don't
remember any chaos theory images, so you'll have to point me to them.
--
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba at sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)