"entropy"

[Paul Mackin]

Don't overlook Lord Peter Wimsey who, in a state of total bewilderment and 
frustration over the evidence in Dorothy L. Sayers' 1932 detective novel 
_Have His Carcase_, sez: "It reduces  it to complete incomprehensibe 
nonsense. Therefore , by the second law of thermo-dynamics, which lays down 
that we are hourly and momently progressing to a state of more and more 
randomness, we receive positrve assurance that we are moving  happily and 
securely in the right direction." (quoted in Jeremy Campbell's _Gramatical 
Man: Information , Entropy, Language, and Life_. Campbell also cites 
Spengler's Decline of the West, Henry Adams, and Freud as contributing to the 
 cross disciplinary transfer of the term.)

I know from personal experience that entropy was used in this sense in the 
early 60s in social science research. It was a lot of hot air then as it is 
now. Quite suitable to fictional purposes however.

		P.



On Wednesday 07 March 2001 08:41, you wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm doing some meta-research at the moment on how the term "entropy" moved
> from thermodynamics to literature, literary criticism and "theory". I
> thought a group of Pynchon experts would probably be able to give me some
> suggestions of books/articles I might want to read. I already have some
> things in mind (among which, of course, Pynchon's story "Entropy" itself),
> but I would like to compare my list to everything proposed by you.
> By the way, any books or articles on the relationship between (post)modern
> science and (post)modern literature are welcome.
>
>
> Pieter Van Dyck
>
>
>
> P.S. Do you think Pynchon himself has played a vital role in introducing
> the term to literary discourse? Or are there other people as well? I
> remember Conrad's novel The Secret Agent features some discussions on
> thermodynamics, for example...
> _________________________________________________________________________
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