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

[Michael Bailey]

Ray Easton wrote:

> Please explain to me what the zeta function has to do with any "theme" of
> AtD.  I'd really like to know.
>
...and...
I don't find any of the novels "crap" with the exception of AtD.



I think some of the zest in literature is in investing
the stuff of life with a playful spirit, and I don't differ with those who
find an awful lot of that in GR.

I call that authorial stance "the mad explicator" and for my money,
it's most heavily prevalent
in GR.  It's a wonderful flourish, and it adds immensely to reading
pleasure - again, imho.
The way that abstruse concepts were made interesting in that book was amazing!

There are those whom GR's virtuosity left cold, for whom that aspect
was superfluous and show-offy (I think Saul Bellow talked about it
that way, for one).  I'm not one of those.

But, perhaps heeding overmuch such criticism, I think that Mr Pynchon
himself consciously backed away from that type of presentation.  My
shred of evidence is in the letter to The Dude where he denigrates his
own research, and also in the preface to "Slow Learner" where he
attempts to disparage his own understanding of the concept of entropy.
 He cites Asimov, a great popularizer, as the source of his knowledge.
 This is tantamount to "small Latin and less Greek"... Hard as it is
to fathom, I think he was being fairly serious in the Dude
communications!  And acted on his own self-criticism in his later
work...to produce something that he would not have to repudiate later
(or at least, not have the same type of second thoughts about...)

My concept, or imputed drama, is that after sending GR forth into the
world, the author underwent numerous crises that changed his style.

These would include a heartbreaking shift to the right in American
politics, the tendrils of which are so geniusly depicted in
_Vineland_. (We know even from _V._ that Pynchon's fascinated with
history...but his foresight probably didn't extend to how far things
would go...)

They would also include an ongoing, justifiable nervousness (prone to
verge into paranoia) when considering the fates of various
counterculture heroes.  And a concomitant determination not to vector
into that flight path himself.  (Comparable to Dylan's
backing away from himself as countercultural leader and sticking to his knitting
as singer/songwriter while broadening his function into bandleader
and, now, chronicler...)

Also, the addition of years and wisdom and the subtraction of at least
some of the deliriants and stimulants that seem likely to have fueled
GR - the search for, and finding of, ways to experience ecstasy "on
the natch" would have changed his focus and techniques.

That was part of the drama of _Vineland_ for me: how does a genius
mind portray such changes in the society around him?  If GR was, in a
way, (in a big way, I'd say), a 24fps production, what does the author
do when the police burn his film collection?  When they pull his
soapbox out from under him?  When his becomes a minority viewpoint,
and he feels perilously close to being Orwell's "minority of one""?

It's also public knowledge that he applied for graduate study in math
but wasn't accepted.
So, I suspect a lingering interest, "mania" or even a "fatality" for
the subject, perhaps a slight inferiority complex even (what I see -
though I hope to see more after finishing _Prime Obsession_ by John
Derbyshire, and rereading AtD - is modest but pithy math material in
AtD, fueled by a determination not to make any claims to knowledge
beyond that which he has - ie, not to replicate his self-perceived
errors in GR), as well as a fantasy component fulfilled by making
Professor Weed carry the torch of countercultural revolution in
_Vineland_ and being dunked with it as it was extinguished in Lethean
waters.

geeze, I'm longwinded tonight...sorry, all...

to finish at a quicker - but still too wordy for Twitter- pace:

M&D went back to an earlier time to explore both the concept of history
and earlier technology.  It brought fantastickal inventions into the
mix, of course...

...and in _Against the Day_, history, math, fantastickal inventions, and
also the development of interesting and innovative characters...

It's not exactly what I would've written, but that's what's so
fascinating about it.

The question has already been raised, "not genius compared to what" -
and Ray has
responded with _No Country for Old Men_ which is certainly a solid enough book.
I'm not about to be a detractor of it, I read it rivetedly through to
the end, in which I find interesting resonances with the end of IV...

but the other question, I guess, is what I'm here to raise: what is so
crap about AtD?

I can't remember looking up from any part of it and saying, "this is crap"

That's why I'm asking, I guess.  Just to find out.  I won't even
argue, I've already had plenty of chances to share what I like and
hope for more to come - but I would be interested in some juicy
anti-AtD dish...

"If you can't find anything nice to say...come sit next to me!" -
Alice Roosevelt Longworth


Mike


-- 
-- "the problem with the deployment of frictionless surfaces is
that they're not getting traction."