Deflating Hyperspace

[Daniel Harper]

On Sunday 01 April 2007 02:18, you wrote:
>From this link:
>
> http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0702&msg=115688&sort=author
>

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Another possible explanation for Einstein's absence can be that Pynchon in 
AtD tries to write from within the paradigm of the years he's describing. In 
2007 it is abundantly clear how important a figure Einstein was, but in the 
years before WWI it was not so clear. In M&D Pynchon also wrote more or less 
from within the paradigm of the 18th century, representing all the crackpot 
theories of the era as just as valid as the ones that eventually held up. 
Pynchon of course knows how things turned out, and by sly anachronistic 
references he points to later scientific developments (including chaos 
theory in M&D), but those references are for his readers, not his 
characters, who blunder happily along inside the horizon of knowledge 
defined by their age. In AtD Pynchon includes a couple-three offhand 
references to the theory of special relativity, and we 21st century readers 
immediately recognize their importance, but his characters don't.
Pynchon doesn't render the past *as* past, but as the present that it once 
was, and in that present Einstein wasn't the towering figure he is today, 
which may be another way of explaining his notable absence from AtD.

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This gets very close to my own feelings on the matter, but I would also add 
that it's possible that in Pynchon's novel, Einstein's ideas were simply 
wrong, that relativity and time dilation and gravitational lenses and the 
like do not accurately describe the universe, but that other, slightly more 
"orthodox" (in a manner of speaking) theories do.

I'll make this quick because I'm leaving the apartment in a few minutes, but 
the science portions of ATD read to me very much like a science fiction novel 
written from the perspective of someone living in the time periods described. 
In other words, scientific speculation written by someone living at the time, 
who didn't understand or didn't appreciate the value of Einstein's work. 
Which may tie back in to what you were saying above (in a section I didn't 
quote) regarding things "too terrible to contemplate".

> .....maybe a small fraction of the beginning of a possible explanation, but
> other inputs are surely needed. I look very much forward to your
> science-literate take on these matters (a-and if you like the science
> aspect of Pynchon, you'll love GR).
>

While I am generally comfortable with generalities of physics and mathematics, 
and even briefly was a physics major, I am currently studying biology and 
chemistry chiefly. So the nitty-gritty details of the science of ATD may be a 
bit beyond me. Since Pynchon relies so heavily on SF conventions, though, it 
may be enough.

-- 
No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.
--Daniel Harper
countermonkey.blogspot.com