ENTROPY

views. H~ wit l continue bad. he

Boris has

D ownstairs. ing party was ki tchen floor,

sativa. This Angciis quartet They recorded

Tambn and to their

65

66

THOMAS PYNCHON

one LP entitled

From time to time one

over by the window, an

chest as if it were a teddy

ment girls, who for

and out on

in one case the bathroom February of '57 and back

they to settle for cherry

soms lime trees when spring carne, but in

its lethargic way their life provided, as kicks.

At the to

SLOW LEARNER

67

the tar paper on the roof

the noses, eye-

f

in Washington, Birthday and

a in the streets

soms are weeks away still

attractions=-tnere are private meannermas

as if spell were a stretto paseage

haphazard aimless

commitments: months one can

UI:',";du:,t:: oddly later

U<1,'''HJll'' of February March

it is as if they

Heroes' Gate boomed

68

THOMAS PYNCHON

up through the floor from an uneasy sleep. The first thing he became aware of was a small bird he had been holding between his hands, against his body. He turned his head sidewise on the pillow to smile down at it, at its blue hunched-down head and sick, lidded eyes, wondering how many more nights he would have to give it warmth before it was well again. He had been holding the bird like that for three it was the only way he knew to restore its health. Next to him girl stirred and whimpered, her arm thrown across her face. Mingled with the sounds of the rain came the first voices of the other birds. hidden in philodendrons and "'-'<lU''''L, yellow, and blue hothim seven years to weave together. Hermetically sealed, it was a tiny enclave

of chaos, to the

of of any civil

disorder, and error Callisto had per-

fected its ecological balance, with the help of the girl its artistic harmony, so that the swayings of its its and human inhabitas the rhythms of a perfectly executed mobile. He and the girl could no longer, of course, be omitted from that sanctuary; they had VVhat they needed

did not

out,

tawny question mark facing him, her eyes suddenly

and ran a

SLOW LEARNER

69

finger beneath the feathers at the base of thebird's

it "He's going to be well, I

think. See: he hears his friends beginning to wake up." the rain and the even before she was fully awake. Her name was Auhade:

she was and part Annamese, and

lived on lonely planet,

odor of the bitterness

of wine, and the accidental fingers at the small of

back or her breasts carne to her

terms of sound: of music which emerged at intervals from a howling

ness of discordancy. "Aubade," he said, "go see." arose: padded to the window, pulled "It is 37,

"

"Since

he said, "No change." Henry Adams, three generations befor~ his own, had stared aghast at Power;

Callisto now in much

the inner life

over

realizing like his predecessor that the Virgin and the dynamo stand as much for love as for power; two are indeed identical;

the

It was this latter or sidereal element which dishim. The cosmologists had Pfl:!dlcte~d

tual heat-death for the universe

Limbo: form and motion abolished, heat~en€rgy iden .. tical at every point in it): the meteorologists, day-to-

staved it off contradicting a reessunn

array of

temperatures.

70

THOMAS PYNCHON

SLOW LEARNER

71

But for three days now, despite the \'U'''Ul~;O::;l'.U weather, the mercury had

Fahrenheit. at omens of

shifted beneath the covers. His bird more firmly, as if needing suffering assurance of an ture.

into

Callisto

a 111011ste1' tequila sour, looks yummy," Sandor Rojas said. "How about you me one." Meatbali blinked at him. "Kitchi lofass a

replied automatically, and away into

bathroom. "I say," he called out a moment later to no one in particular. "I say, there seems to or something sleeping in the sink. He the shoulders and shook. "Wha," she said. don't look too comfortable," Meatball said. "Well," she agreed. She stumbled to the shower, turned on the cold water and sat down crosslegged in the spray. "That's better," she

"Meatball," Sandor Rojas yelled from the kitchen.

"Somebody is trying to come in window. A burglar, I think. A second-story man." "What are you worrying about," Meatball third floor." He loped back into the kitchen. A

shaggy woebegone stood out on

raking his fingernails down the ball opened the window. "Saul," he said.

"Sort of wet out," said. He

dripping. "You I guess."

"Miriam left you," Meatball said, "or something, is all I heard."

There was a sudden flurry knocking at the

front door. "Do come in," Sandor called. The

George

in the tempera-

It was that last cymbal crash did it Meatball

was hurled into consciousness as the syn-

chronized of over the wastebasket

stopped.

the into

" announced looking at the empty magnum. Krinkles, in

slow motion, smiled, and held out a cigarette.

man," said. "No, no," said Meatball.

many times I got to tell you guys. Not at my You ought to know , Washington is lousy " Krinkles looked wistful. "Ieez, Meatball,"

"you don't want to do nothing no more." "Hair of dog," said Meatball. "Only hope. Any juice left?" He began to crawl toward the kitchen. "No champagne. I don't think." Duke said. "Case of tequila behind the icebox." They put on an Earl Bostic side. Meatball paused at the kitchen door, glowering at Rojas. "Lemons," he said after some thought He crawled to the refrigerator and got

escape, Meat-

out three lemons and some

found the tequila

and set

Washington, all

He drew blood once cutting the lemons and had to

ophy. They were each holding a gallon of Chianti.

them and his foot to crack

Sandor leaped up and dashed into the

room,

the ice tray

"We heard there was a party," one blonde said ..

~.~~~~~~""'~~--""'----""'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''-- ...

72

THOMAS PYNCHON

He

"vas an ex ...

chronic case

called Don Giovannism in

bent foolscap, scribbling away in rOOID. "As a young man at v(1.1UlIlU was dictating, nestling the bird

a mnemonic device for remembering the 'hermodvnamics: you can't win,

of course, that

it all dawned on

realize that isolated

he

SLOW LEARNER

73

the 'More Probable. He was therefore, in

fall of middle age, to a radical reevaluation had learned up to cities and seasons and

now to at in a new and

He did not know if he was to the task.

aware of the of the reductive and,

hoped, strong not to drift into the graceful

U",'vC.""'",l"<:1 of an enervated fatalism. His had

a vigorous, Italian sort of

Machiavelli, he the

"""1'''''''' to be about fifty/fifty;

himself afraid to calculate.

loomed vague the

UUU<:1j,O:;U azainst his own. Counterpotnted "'5'UU;:>L

words the girl heard the chatter of fitful car honkings scattered

and Earl Bostic's alto in

the floor. architectonic purity of

world was constantly such of

gaps excrescences and skew lines,

or tilting of to she had to readjust lest the whole structure shiver discrete and meaningless 'U~'llo:ll~

call1sto described process once as a kind

"feedback": into night

with a sense exhaustion, and a desperate resolve

never to relax that vigilance. Even in brief

74

THOMAS PYNCHON

periods when Callisto made love to her, soaring above the bowing of taut nerves in haphazard doublestops would be the one singing string of her determination.

"Nevertheless," continued Callisto, found in

entropy or the measure of disorganization for a closed system an adequate metaphor to apply to

certain in his own world.

example, the younger generation Madison Avenue with the same once reserved for Wall Street: and in American 'consumerism' discovered a from the least to the most probable, from differentiation to sameness, from individuality to a kind of chaos. He found himself, in short, restating Gibbs'

prediction in social and envisioned a heat-

for his in which ideas, like heat-

energy, would no longer be transferred, since each point in it would ultimately have the same quantity energy; and intellectual motion would, accordingly,

he said. she rose and peered out at the thermometer. "37," she said. "The rain has stopped." He bent his quickly and held his lips against a it will change soon," he said, trying to keep his voice firm.

Sitting on the stove Saul was like any big rag doll a kid has been taking out some incomprehensirage on. "What happened," MI~atDa.ll

you feel like talking, I mean.

"Of course I feel like talking," Saul said. "One thing I did; I slugged her."

SLOW LEARNER

75

to

"Disci pline must be maintained."

ha. I wish been there. Meatball, it

was a lovely fight. She ended up throwing a Handbook of Chemistry at me. only it missed and went through the window, and when the glass broke I reckon something in her broke too. stormed out of the house crying, out in the rain. No raincoat or anything.

"She'll "No."

"Well." Soon Meatball said: "It was something

who is Sal

"What it was about," Saul said, "was communication theory. Which of course makes it very hilarious."

"I don't know about communication

theory."

"Neither does my wife. Come right down to who does? That's the joke."

When Meatball saw kind of smile

"No. I mean, I'm sorry. It's a field you can go off the deep end in, is all. You get where

ail time cops: behind bushes, around

corners. MUFFET is top secret."

"Wha."

that?"

"Miriam has been reading science fiction again. That and Scientific American. It seems she is, as we say, bugged at of computers acting like

76

THOMAS PYNCHON

I made the mistake saying you can

well turn and talk

as behav-

ior like a program fed into an IBM machine."

"Why not," Meatball

"Indeed, why not In it is sort of crucial to

.... V:UUJllUJ,U .... <1LlIUJ1, not to mention information theory. that she hit the roof. Up went

can't figure out If anybody

should know why, I should. I to believe

is wasting it has so many bigger waste it on."

Meatball made a moue. thought you

were acting a dehumanized amoral scien-

tist flung up an arm. more human can I I worry, Meatball, are Europeans wandering around North

days with their torn out of

those spoken the

the thought they

"Language " Meatball

jumped "he

angry, "is a good year. No, ace, it is not a barrier. If it is anything it's a of leakage, a girl: 'I love you,' No trouble with two-thirds that, it's a closed circuit. Just you

and But four-letter word in

that's the one you have to look out Ambiguity. Redundance. Irrelevance, even, Leakage.

SLOW LEARNER

77

All this is noise. Noise screws up your

makes disorganization in circuit."

Meatball shuffled around. "Well, now, Saul," he

muttered, sort of, I know, a

lot from What it is is,

most of guess, are mostly

noise."

"Hal Half of what you just said, example."

"Well, you do it too."

"I know." Saul grimly. "It's a bitch, ain't

it. "

"I that's what keeps divorce lawyers in UU."Ul""" Whoops."

"Oh, I'm not sensitive. right. You find I think marriages-Miriam and me, up to night-are sort of founded on compromises. You never run at

top all you is a rmmmurn

basis a workable thing. I believe the phrase is

Togetherness. "

"Aarrgghh, "

"Exactly. You find that one a bit noisy, you?

But the noise content is different for each of us because you're a and I'm not. Or wasn't, The hell with it."

"Well sure," Meatball helpful,

"you were using words. By being'

you meant something that you can look at like it was a computer, It helps you better on the job or something. But Miriam meant something entire-

"The hell with it."

78

Meatball fell

THOMAS PYNCHON

take that drink," Saul

card game been abandoned and Sandor's

U"'''U4'' were slowly getting wasted on tequila. On room couch, one of the coeds and s.nnsies engaged in amorous conversation. "No,"

was I can't Dave In fact I

give Dave a lot credit, man. --J~--"-"J l,,'uu,uu<;a

ing his accident and all." The girl's smile faded.

w ... ~ .• v " she said. "What accident?" "Hadn't

you Krinkles said. "When Dave was in the

sent him down to Oak Ridge on special Something to do with the Manhattan Project. He was handling hot stuff one day got an radiation. So now he's got to wear lead gloves all the time." She shook her

"What an awful fora

Meatball had abandoned Saul to a bottle of

la and was about to go to front door open and five enlisted

in a the

place was invaded the U.S. Navy, all in

is

was telling us about." A stringy-looking 3rd class boatswain's mate pushed aside cased the room. "You're right, Slab," he said. "But

look like much, even stateside. I seen

tail in Italy." "How much,

boomed a large seaman with who was

SLOW LEARNER

79

my

automatons in

names which had ticked behind

many musicians were left after the Marne? It came

80

THOMAS PYNCHON

not. really I

81

"it was 'Love for

about

a

You

"Not

82

THOMAS PYNCHON

"Well first

say, I am no Mingus,

was never my point. I

for

one

new

I corne in

SLOW LEARNER

83

Krinkles, "sixteen corne in->" "sixteen?" Duke said. "No. You want me to

a lipstick's an airline ticket to

" Krinkles scratched his "Duke

84

gray.

did not finish.

"I was

more, irre-

ago,

constant 37 was now

the

unavoidable conclusion to all this she moved

moment of

Fahrenheit should

86

.THOMAS PYNCHON

motion.