Missing the point

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

Googled myself this morning (ooooooo----feels sooo good), shocked to find all 
these pages with my name on it. I doubt that this has been posted on the 
P-list before, but thought it was well worth passing on:


       Against the Day Weblog
       December 19, 2006
       Missing the point
       Filed under: Notes, General — basileios @ 10:17 am

       Ok, we have gone this through more times that I want 
       to remember. Against the Day is a novel about change, 
       about the brief moments just before the explosion 
       when everything is in a state of chaos that is ordered 
       by the explosion itself (remember the Proudhon quote 
       Anarchy is Order?).

       As is often the case with Pynchon science is used as 
       a means of parallelizing the social political status of 
       the world with elements of science. The time of the 
       book is just perfect for all the changes in the scientific 
       paradigms that brought forward ‘modern physics’ 
       (quantum mechanics and relativity). Yet herein lies 
       the wonderful bit about Pynchon and Against the Day.

       Pynchon failed to feel into the trap of entering the 
       cliche of talking about the theory of relativity and 
       Einstein. Yes, special and general relativity are 
       almost everywhere in the book (like the E=mc**2 
       formula described in page 565) but they do not 
       play the crucial role of change that a medium caliber 
       writer would make them play. Instead Pynchon 
       dives deep in the actual theory, picks out the 
       element that was transformed by the paradigm 
       change (light), something which is often missed 
       by many professional scientists, and uses this 
       as the central metaphor for the whole book.

       Frankly, I find this simply brilliant.