"entropy"

[David Kassay]

I just began reading "Great Ideas in Physics" by Alan Lightman. It is a
"physics for poets" type book - very light on the math. He uses many quotes
from the humanities in explaining the laws of thermodynamics, relativity and
quantum mechanics and how these ideas have influenced the humanities. He
includes excerpts from Lot 49 in his chapter on the 2nd law.

-- David
-----Original Message-----
From: Pieter Van Dyck <p_van_dyck at hotmail.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Date: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 8:48 AM
Subject: "entropy"


>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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