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

[Erik T. Burns]

except that in _IV_ a lot "happens," but there's no point....

(I'm with you on the interest of _IV_, Rich -- a minority opinion I know.)

etb



On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 7:04 PM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
> >
>
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