The meaing of mathematics in Against the Day.....

[Mark Kohut]

No matter what we think of the ultimate quality P's various works, is there another writer who uses overarching book-length metaphors as he does?
 
Which is a way of my suggesting that mathematics in AtD 'maps' metaphorically as synechdoche....a subset of metaphor in general...

 


----- Original Message ----
From: Ray Easton <kraimie at kraimie.net>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Fri, March 19, 2010 11:37:34 AM
Subject: Re: The meaing of mathematics in Against the Day.....

Joseph Tracy wrote:
> “The political crisis in Europe maps into the crisis in mathematics. […] The connections lie there […] – hidden and poisonous. Those of us who must creep among them do so at our peril.”
> 
> If the" foundational crisis" is not being referred to in that statement, what is?
> 

> Engelhart is simply reinforcing the idea summarized in the quote that  Pynchon is mapping the foundational crisis onto this larger crisis. 


The statement that there is a mapping is not itself a mapping.  It is the existence of an actual mapping in the novel that I am questioning.


Ray