Schachterle: Bandwidth as Metaphor for Consciousness in GR

[jbor at bigpond.com]

Meanwhile, another of the really worthwhile critical examinations of GR 
(pdf available):

'Bandwidth as Metaphor for Consciousness in Pynchon's _Gravity's 
Rainbow_'
by Lance Schachterle. _Studies in the Literary Imagination_ 22.1, 
Spring 1989, pp.101-117.	
Abstract:	
Examines _Gravity's Rainbow_ by Thomas Pynchon, which incorporates the 
concept of bandwidth as metaphor for consciousness, and is used 
tropically and as a narrative strategy for presenting Tyrone Slothrop. 
Expectations from the readers of _Gravity's Rainbow_; Cause of his 
command of technology; Definition of the concept of bandwidth.

Begins:
Scientific revolutions created  by the likes of Darwin, Einstein and 
Heisenberg have so altered our conception of nature that metaphors of 
Evolution, Relativity and Indeterminacy are inescapable in modern 
literature. But although contemporary technology has shaped our daily 
lives even more than these major scientific concepts, equally dramatic 
technological abstractions rarely contribute to the subject matter for 
literature.

Nor have contemporary writers often turned to technology for 
far-reaching metaphors. One major exception is Thomas Pynchon ... 
Pynchon's appetite for the physical sciences is omnivorous; among 
scientifically literate authors he alone does not shun the nitty-gritty 
of applied technology for the grander abstruseness of theory. In _GR_, 
for example, he expects his readers to share an interest in the details 
of the chemical, electronic, and mechanical technologies that allow the 
V-2 to fly. ... (101)

best