Sitaram
01-29-2005, 11:11 PM
- by N. Katherine Hayles
An English professor with a degree in chemistry analyzes the novels Pirsig, DH Lawrence, Nabokov, Borges and Pynchon from the point of view of Quantum, Relativity, and Godel.
from the Introduction:
Characteristic metaphors are a "cosmic dance," a "network of events," and an "energy field." A dance, a network, a field - the phrases imply a reality that has no detachable parts, indeed no enduring, unchanging parts at all. Composed not of particles but of "events," it is in constant motion, rendered dynamic by ineractions that are simultaneously affecting each other. As the "dance" metaphor implies, its harmonious, rythmic patterns of motion include the observer as an integral participant. Its distinguishing characteristics, then, are its fluid dynamic nature, the inclusion of the observer, the absence of detachable parts, and the mutuality of component interactions.
If Galileo could be hijacked by a time machine, taught English, and dropped into contemporary Boston, he would feel completely at home at M.I.T. Shelling would have to be brainwashed.
The whole universe appears as a dynamic web of inseparable energy patterns.
Literary style arises out of the interplay between the world and ourselves, or more specifically, between the spirit of the time and the artist. The spirit of a time is probably a fact as objective as any fact in natural science, and this spirit brings out certain features in the world... The artist tries in his work to make these features understandable, and in this attempt he is led to the forms of the style in which he/she works. - from "Physics and Philosophy"
An English professor with a degree in chemistry analyzes the novels Pirsig, DH Lawrence, Nabokov, Borges and Pynchon from the point of view of Quantum, Relativity, and Godel.
from the Introduction:
Characteristic metaphors are a "cosmic dance," a "network of events," and an "energy field." A dance, a network, a field - the phrases imply a reality that has no detachable parts, indeed no enduring, unchanging parts at all. Composed not of particles but of "events," it is in constant motion, rendered dynamic by ineractions that are simultaneously affecting each other. As the "dance" metaphor implies, its harmonious, rythmic patterns of motion include the observer as an integral participant. Its distinguishing characteristics, then, are its fluid dynamic nature, the inclusion of the observer, the absence of detachable parts, and the mutuality of component interactions.
If Galileo could be hijacked by a time machine, taught English, and dropped into contemporary Boston, he would feel completely at home at M.I.T. Shelling would have to be brainwashed.
The whole universe appears as a dynamic web of inseparable energy patterns.
Literary style arises out of the interplay between the world and ourselves, or more specifically, between the spirit of the time and the artist. The spirit of a time is probably a fact as objective as any fact in natural science, and this spirit brings out certain features in the world... The artist tries in his work to make these features understandable, and in this attempt he is led to the forms of the style in which he/she works. - from "Physics and Philosophy"