antw. re: pynchon's strictly humanist concern

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

Cyrus schrieb:

>  In
>  the case of Pynchon (and being strictly subjective, of course), having
>  studied physics and having worked at Boeing has influenced his writing as to
>  his use of metaphor. In other words, the external aspects of his writing.

   that's exactly our dissent. in my opinion, one cannot - while still young -  
   be deeply involved into technical thinking and even concrete       
   air-technological engineering without being touched at creativity's core.    
   
   this is not necessarily bad. 

   pynchon's novels are populated with non-humans of different origin, natural 
   ones, technical ones, spiritual ones. exploring all these allows us a 
   deepened understanding of our human situation. "the new hybrid 
   'actor-network' leads us away from mathematical properties into a world which 
   has not yet been so neatly charted ..." (bruno latour: on actor-network 
   theory. a few clarifications. in: soziale welt 47 (1996), heft 4, pp. 
   369-381, here 372).


regards, kai    



>  But what he has to say 
> (I can try to back this up based on GR, if you like)
>  is about humans, men and women, their passions, their fears, their merits
>  and shortcomings, their struggle to find meaning in a basicly inhuman world.
>  And, you know what? They manage, finally, if you want to read him
>  optimistically. I'm not saying he rejects technology; I'm saying he sees it
>  within a human context.
>
> As to solar power and wind power and stuff, I'm totally with you.
>
> Cyrus