Against the Light

[Dave Monroe]

November 21, 2007
Against the Light
Filed under: Uncategorized — basileios @ 7:25 am

I have thought about this for quite a bit and I have decided to join
the band of Pynchonians in next years Pynchon Week in Munich. Aiming
high, I decided to do a paper as well on Against the Day on the
scientific and textual instances of Light in Against the Day. Here is
the abstract, so if you have any comments I would love to hear them.

Against the Light:

The scientific and textual importance of Light in Thomas Pynchon's
'Against the Day'

Light plays a very special role in Thomas Pynchon's latest novel
Against the Day. It is not simply a part of physics that is used
extensively in Against the Day as a running theme from chapter to
chapter but Pynchon uses light both as a metaphor and as a protagonist
in parallel to all the events that are narrated in Against the Day.
Any analysis of Against the Day that neglects the importance of light
and its manifestations is bound to be incomplete so it is important to
uncover both the scientific and metaphoric roles of light in Against
the Day as a starting point to all analysis of this important work.
Light, seen in context of the period that Against the Day takes place,
is the physical element that undergoes the most important and ground
breaking shift in the eyes of the scientists and the common public:
from a 'simple' electromagnetic wave as part of the aether theories,
via Special Relativity – whose absence is more than remarkable in the
book – to the most important physical element, the measure of all
things. Since that time period time, space, velocity, and many other
physical quantities are measured with respect to this absolute maximum
velocity of light – or a number derived by it. Moreover, the
particle/wave duality of light introduced by photoelectric effect in
the early 20th century starts a rather paradoxical state of affairs
that will be followed and expanded by quantum mechanics for all
matter. At the same time light, in the form of the electromagnetic
wave, becomes the medium, the carrier for the majority of human
communications from that point onwards, and the emission and handling
of electromagnetic radiation becomes one of the most important
technological aspects of the 20th century. Pynchon in Against the Day
focuses his attention on Light as a medium of change that represents
the scientific revolution that will eventually shape the new Physics
of the 20th century and as a result of all the revolutions (political,
artistic, social, technological) in the tempestuous times of the
beginning of the 20th century. Furthermore, Light appears in Against
the Day as a textual metaphor that seems to correlate the narration in
the form of an expanding light wave that is eventually focused on
specific themes, and stories. The present paper explores the instances
of light in Against the Day, analyzes their scientific and
technological nature and status and discusses the textual implications
under the context of this 'Pynchonian Science'.

http://againsttheday.wordpress.com/