AtD, as the wheel turns, turns, turns

[grladams at teleport.com]

I agree that proto quantum physics mathematics is a major aspect of the
evolving language of the times that motivates the book. But I do not think
you have to know the mathematical notation. Since it's a fantasy book-
there's scientific apparatus that would not ever be invented, it serves the
novel well to carry on in the flowery concepts of such a displaced math.
Speculative / fantasy requires that. Philip Pullman is one other example.
Crack open really old Chemistry books (Like the kind TRP II read and even
his own) or Optics books and look under light and atmosphere and you get
the stuff of speculative fiction. Language of the Spheres. I'm stating that
the Q math took a break from reality, went to his projected world, then,
like Robin says, is again being used today. 

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Mark Kohut markekohut at yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:14:48 -0700 (PDT)
To: robinlandseadel at comcast.net, pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: AtD, as the wheel turns, turns, turns


Robin:
   
  yes, I overstated........as I've thrown out there, lots
  of the essential math in AtD is satrized, eviscerated, as a major 
  cause of the probelm of modernity, I think. Mad Dog Principles of
Mathematics
  Russell.....for simple example.
   
  I might argue that light needs no math to be seen and felt in AtD. When
  it has math, it is 'electric light' and other bad shit...
   
  But, also, such as with yashmeen here, I think it is 
  Macguffin-like in this way:  
   
  A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin) is a plot device that motivates the
characters or advances the story, but the details of which are of little or
no importance otherwise.
  The element that distinguishes a MacGuffin from other types of plot
devices is that it is not important what the object specifically is.
Anything that serves as a motivation will do. The MacGuffin might even be
ambiguous. Its importance is accepted by the story's characters, but it
does not actually have any effect on the story. It can be generic or left
open to interpretation.
   
   
  But I'm wrong a lot.
   
  Mark
   
   
   
   
  

robinlandseadel at comcast.net wrote:
  Mark Kohut :
Michael,

I'm still mostly believeing that math is (mostly) a 
MacGuffin, at least, in AtD---as you have used that 
concept to apply to other aspects of Pycnhon's bag 
of tricks. . . .

Quarterninions were reclaimed by computer animators, are an 
essential part of the "City of the future." In other words, part 
and parcel to the emerging math language of quantum mechanics, 
the physics of light. Not a McGuffin but the heart of the story.

From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
CC: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Subject: Re: AtD, as the wheel turns, turns, turns
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:28:05 +0000

  Michael,
   
  I'm still mostly believeing that math is (mostly) a MacGuffin, at least,
in AtD---as
  you have used that concept to apply to other aspects of Pycnhon's bag of
tricks.
   
  But, gambling, probability are more pervasive themes than I noticed at
first, fer sure...
   
  Still puzzling them out....

Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
  oh, and yes, Webb referring to his family as the "whole damn
poker hand" segueing into Kit's dream where the paterfamilias
is actually working on such a hand, transmuted by dream-logic
into a mathematical array

indeed, the study of probability has been greatly encouraged
by the practice of gambling over the years

and in the Heechee Books (I think) weren't the Pearson's
Puppeteers engaging in a long breeding experiment with
the human race, selecting for "luck" which they had found
to be a heritable trait?

    
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