MDMD(4) p.123 small re-write

[Matthew P Wiener]

Paul Mackin writes:

>In response to Mathew:

>I would question whether Pynchon godfathered the entropy-
>made-stupid fashion if that's your meaning.

Not quite.  I just have the suspicion that Pynchon's particular choice
of self-criticism, of all the things he could self-criticize, is because
he had a tiny bit of guilt feeling in the above department.  No more.

>					      Back in the early sixties
>entropy was a very hot social science research buzzward at my so called
>think tank and I am sure no one there ever heard of Thomas Pynchon.
>(Thomas Kuhn was THEIR Thomas)

Yes, but the social sciences are cloistered enough, so that it could
have come and gone there and nobody else would have noticed.  But
once it hit the English departments, not only was it made available
for the masses, it was a tenured concept.  No amount of harsh facts
would ever dislodge it.  (The social sciences have since gone the
English-department-way, but that is a different story.)

>I don't think P's knowledge of science was (in GR) nearly as weak
>as you imply. Of course he does totally outlandish takes on
>this or that construct, but they demonstrate at least a
>knowledge of basic scientific principles. Just one example,
>the sound shadows passage very late in the book.

Could you remind me?  I'm working on 15 year old memories.

>						  He couldn't have
>done it without understanding how light and sound waves really work.
>Of course it's probably only high school physics.

Without knowing the passage, your wording doesn't sound encouraging.
Sound does not cast shadows.

>One of those p-buzzwords might have been trotted out in that
>passage about gallows/slavery/crusades/the cross. Isn't the
>phrase "an essential term" something we have seen several
>times before. Sounds vaguely scientific or mathematical, for
>no very good reason that I can see.

Not to me.  "Term" is mathematical, yes.  But like I said, I think
Pynchon is integrating the buzzwords in better this time around.
Perhaps this is a reflection of his background reading: no doubt
Pope, Donne, Marvell were on his list.

>				     " . . . whilst Slavery must
>ever include, as an essential Term, the Gallows . . ." The
>whole sentence struck me as a tiny bit pretentious.   [...]

Eeh...?  The whole book struck me as a tiny bit pretentious.  That
was part of the fun, was it not?
--
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba at sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)