Atd : page 542---starts on page 524.Big Ass Spoiler

[Anville Azote]

On 12/7/06, Monte Davis <monte.davis at verizon.net> wrote:
> Anville:
>
> > So, rilly, the **only** significant contact point between Kit Traverse and
> Richard
> > Feynman is Tannu Tuva.
>
> I pretty much agree, although I respect Robin's eye in many other regards.
> As picturesque as Feynman's interest in Tannu Tuva (along with a million
> other things) was, as much as he enjoyed goading the Soviet bureaucracy, and
> as entertainingly as he spun out the story, it simply wasn't a big deal for
> him. Nor for him was it part of the cluster Pynchon puts it in (Tibet,
> Shambhala, Indiana Webb and the Spenglerian Mysteries of Central Asia).
>

Thank you for saying what I wanted to say.  I think this is one of
those topics where it's very easy to strike sparks, but also very
tempting to mistake those sparks for genuine flame.  Pynchon **works
hard** for those "tight metaphors" of his, much harder than Capra,
Deepak Chopra or any of that crowd have worked for their woo.

Oedipa's first reaction to Maxwell's Demon can be instructive, even to
a physicist.  In GR, Dr. Jamf's lecture on replacing carbon with
silicon points to some very real issues in chemistry.  I've always
taken it as an example of someone **trying to create a metaphor**,
connecting the world of chemistry with Volk-mysticism.  (A thing I've
noticed from TCL49 onwards:  how often do metaphors belong to the
characters rather than to Pynchon?  Isn't part of Oedipa's puzzle the
question of whether the Demon, the thing which makes the metaphor
"objectively true", belongs only to Nefastis or to the world. . . .)

> Glad to see you mention "The Tao of Physics" -- yes, it is the prime
> exemplar for the past generation of mystery-mongering with scientific
> wrapping, rather like the 1900 overlap of T.W.I.T. types and "reputables"
> (Crookes, Heaviside, Conan Doyle, William James et al) who thought
> spiritualism might be worth investgating. The Tesla cult, which has had
> several rises and falls over the decades, is another: he was a genuinely
> great engineer and inventor, who gradually went genuinely crazy -- and
> without grappling with at least some physics and math, it's next to
> impossible to tease apart those threads. Add the conspiratorial element AtD
> plays with-- Tesla was going to provide the world with broadcast energy free
> from the air, but They blocked him and/or turned his discoveries into
> weapons -- and you've got rich soil.
>

Thanks for pointing out an item for my re-reading.  I should pay more
attention to what we learn happens to that conspiracy.

> There are real mysteries in natural science, and real mysteries in -- as
> they used to say on _Ben Casey_ --  "man, woman, birth, death, infinity."
> That doesn't mean they're the same mysteries, or that our approach to the
> latter is enhanced by hand-waving about the former.
>

Well put.

> I feel a "weird science" article for the Wiki coming on...
>

Now **that** sounds like fun!

Best to all, and keep striking those sparks.

-A. A.