The crying of x^2 + xy + y^2 = 49

[rich]

hmm...

"Choosing to structure his successive novels by conic
sections, if that is what Pynchon did may have been a private joke,
just like the
recurring trope of entropy in his work may be an elaborate reminder of
C. P. Snow's
comparison of ignorance of the second law of thermodynamics to not having read
Shakespeare.

There aren't any more conic sections, except for the most degenerate of all, the
single point, which might designate a novel in which absolutely
nothing happens."

Is IV the novel where "absolutely nothing happens"?
what would be IV's single point?
maybe a discussion for the end of our IV group read

rich

On 10/26/09, Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com> wrote:
> Foax:
>
> TRP's ATD on "the Blue."
>
> "Pynchon, postmodern author, is commonly said to have a non-linear narrative
> style. No one seems to have taken seriously the possibility, to be
> explored in this
> essay, that his narrative style might in fact be quadratic."
>
> http://www.metafilter.com/86137/The-crying-of-x2-xy-y2-49
>
> Link straight to the cited article:
>
> http://people.math.jussieu.fr/~harris/Pynchon.pdf
>
> Warmly, etb
>