Asimov and Pynchon

[Corbeau Castrum]

Hi folks,

I recently acquired an Everyman Library's edition of Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy, and in the introduction Michael Dirda makes some very interesting comments:

"Pulp-magazine heroes traditionally save the day, or the universe. But where is the place for heroes against the 'dead hand' of the Seldon Plan? If the concatenation of myriad forces, carefully analyzed by Hari Seldon, determines outcomes, what of individual effort? In essence, psychohistory recalls Calvinist theology: If God, or Seldon, rules, then one should simply trust in his wisdom, bow to circumstances, and know that all is ineluctably predestined" (xiv).

The fact that psychohistory is a statistical science of prediction which produces a Calvinist-esque fatalism is very reminiscent of much in Gravity's Rainbow. Pynchon for his part references Asimov in the introduction to Slow Learner as one of the people whom he read on the topic of entropy. I briefly searched for essays and articles connecting the two but couldn't find anything. My thoughts are still churning about how the two might relate to each other. What do you folks think? Have you ever made the comparison before?

Happy May Day,
Cormac