Pynchon and Automata

[John Bailey]

Where to start?

Pynchon has apparently been interested in automata since at least V., 
wherein, in addition to the actual automata and semi-automated characters, 
we find reflections on the whole history of philosophy which gave rise to 
and was mirrored in these actual automata. One of my favourite passages in 
V. comes when Fausto (or one of the Faustos) compares the dead leaves blown 
by a gust of wind to tiny automata. The philosophy of Mechanism, of the 
universe as a clockwork machine of interlocking parts, was one of the most 
important modes of imagining the world which came to prominence in the 18th 
century. The quotes from Otto Mayr which Dave Monroe provided are 
straight-to-the-point in this regard. A lot of the religions and sects 
mentioned in M&D had their own take on the Mechanistic view: whether it be a 
wound-up universe where God is the mainspring powering all, or a universe 
set in motion by a God who was then unnecessary, or a universe entirely 
self-sufficient and not needing of a deity.

P did his research, so it's no surprise that Vaucanson and his Duck appear 
in M&D, just as the Chess-playing automaton, probably the other automaton of 
the greatest fame, pops up in GR (675). More info on the duck is at 
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/01/riskinprofile1024.html, a page on 
Jessica Riskin, who has written a book on the topic, The Defecating Duck, as 
well as a forthcoming title which seems especially relevant to M&D, Science 
in the Age of Sensibility (forthcoming 2002), discussing the way 
Enlightenment science was characterised by emotion and sentiment as much as 
rationalism and empiricism, and how the split between empiricism and emotion 
was something that came after...Fits in well with Mason and Dixon's 
heightened sensibility. Riskin has also got an article you can download 
called "Poor Richard's Leyden Jar: Electricity and Economy in Franklinist 
France," at http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/riskin.html, along with some 
others.

The duck is different, though, isn't it (she)? In V. the progress towards 
the inanimate is kind of scary; in M&D, the inanimate is progressing towards 
life. Now we're looking at artificial life, artificial intelligence, the 
desires of an automaton, the loneliness of the same...why did the duck come 
to America? Wasn't it inevitable? Of course, it never really did, unlike the 
Chess-player, but then again the duck never really defecated either. 
Vaucanson couldn't get that bit right, so he fudged a little.

More to come.




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