Ironic Distance in Thomas Pynchon's "Entropy"

[Monte Davis]

You might want to check out Huck and Jim, too.

 

From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of alice wellintown
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2013 5:22 AM
To: pynchon -l
Subject: Ironic Distance in Thomas Pynchon's "Entropy"

 

I'll comment on this article and on "TSI", the shorts that matter most to
the science in P. 

 

To my reading, "TSI" is far more important than "Entropy", for a bunch of
reasons, but chiefly  

because it includes our very first doomed counterforce lead by the little
man, Grover Snodd, a "scientist" who tries to use science/math to understand
the world and ends up abandoning his better angel (the little black boy).
Forget the satanic mills, for now, here is the idea from Blake we need to
focus on. It's not that P alludes directly to Blake in the story, but the
concept, of harm and duty, the responsibility the boys have to both the jazz
man and their imaginary friend, is essentially the same theme Blake
develops, of innocence and experience. Dark, yes, but far darker than the
satanic mills, surely, Blake a big reader of Milton would agree,  is the
heart, dear Conrad. 

 

 

 

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/contemporary_literature/summary/v052/52.2.heffe
rnan.html
    

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