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

[Anville Azote]

On 12/8/06, robinlandseadel at comcast.net <robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
> Anybody gotta copy of "Tuva or Bust? Prove me wrong. I really don't
> know anything about Richard Feynman, but a lot of pointers seemed
> to be angled towards him anyway. So do me a favor, kids---if you've
> read "Tuva Or Bust", or have something meaningful to say about this
> here particular neck of the woods---speak up!. 'Cause as far as I can tell,
> it's simple arithmetic: Tuva + Physics = Feynman. In any case, I've already
> ordered a copy for myself.
>

Tuva + Lots of math not associated with Feynman + some physics also
not strongly associated with Feynman (double refraction, Prandtl's
boundary layer, luminferous aether) + absence of stories strongly tied
to Feynman (safecracking, bongo drums, Challenger's o-rings) = . . . .

If Pynchon devoted even a fraction of the time he spent on the
Quaternion Wars to liquid helium, for example, I think we could make a
much stronger case for a Feynman connection.  Ditto for quarks or
quantum electrodynamics --- but alluding to those topics in a
fin-de-siecle story would be Really Hard.  (Not impossible, mind you.)

The only detail in Feynman's Tuva saga which correlates with anything
Pynchonian is the postage stamps.  And IIRC, **Tuva or Bust** mentions
that the old stamps from Tannu Touva were renowned among philatelists.
. . so if anything brought Tuva to Pynchon's attention, he practically
**has to use** them.  Ditto for throat-singing:  Tuva is famous for
it, so Pynchon uses it.  I didn't notice any particular parallels with
Feynman's attempts to reach Tuva, which had much more to do with
hunting down obscure books via interlibrary loan, outwitting the
Soviet bureaucracy and so forth.

**Tuva or Bust** is a good book.  I expect you'll enjoy it.

-A. A.