V-2nd - 2: Summary, Part II

[Robin Landseadel]

On Jul 2, 2010, at 10:51 AM, Ian Livingston wrote:

>> Part II opens with more clock imagery.  The Whole Sick Crew's  
>> having a party that proceeds like an inanimate clock, unwinding,  
>> "seeking some easing of its own tension, some equilibrium."
>
> Isn't this a rehash of "Entropy"? And, given the importance of the
> role entropy plays in CoL49 (such a short time later), it might
> relate. Is the party scene representative, perhaps, of social,
> communication entropy? Parties, after all, are rarely hotbeds of
> ideas. The steady temperature outside in the story (37 degrees) as the
> scene inside shifts without advancing is pretty clearly adapted here.
> I don't know--is the clock a symptom / symbol of social entropy? Is it
> fair to consider communication entropy a part of P's mindset at the
> time he wrote this?

Think about what "Inherent Vice" is all about in light of this. I'm  
sure that working at Boeing gave him lots of insider information on  
the early development of computers and information theory.