Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Pynchon
Pynchon
2005
Lehrstuhl für Amerikanistik
Hauptseminar: “Recent American Fiction”
Dozent: Prof. Dr. Zapf
Referenten: Ariane Busch, Stefan Füssl,
Michelle Stöger, Laura Strathmann
A) entropy in physics:
entropy = term from physics referring to the unavailability of energy
Second Law of Thermodynamics: entropy will increase until the two bodies are
uniformly cold and without remaining energy (=heat)
consequence: heat-death
entropy as a measure of disorganisation and unpredictability
entropy as a measure of sameness and conformity
4th floor
Callisto & Aubade
o overwrought hypotaxis
o bird motive: dying bird = destrucition
of the order of his self-created paradise
o simple parataxis
o waste motive: symbol for the entropic
decline of the modern materialistic society
B) Oppositions
A dialectic structure is evident throughout the whole text:
inside - outside
hot-house - street
order - chaos
mind - body
isolation - communication
art - science
C) Symbols and metaphors
music:
- The story contains a large number of references to music and
musicians. Pynchon uses this motive to characterize each scene.
(Meatball’s flat: jazz; Callisto’s flat: classic music)
- The structure of the text draws extensively on the techniques of the
fugue. (counterpoints = rythmic contrasts)
weather:
- Even though the weather changes repeatedly, the temperature
remains constant, which Callisto is afraid of as he fears the heat-
death of the universe.
- The sounds of the music are mixing with the noise of the rain. For
example, Callisto is determined to shut out chaotic elements, but
the one form of energy which he cannot control is sound, from the
outside (rain) and from below (music).
D) Postmodern elements
intertextuality: Entropy starts with an epigraph, taken from Henry Miller’s Tropic
of Cancer ( weather motive!), there are hints on the bible as
well as on music, history, science and biology which make the
story a big collage.
metafiction: Callisto, by reflecting on his own theory on entropy, offers ways
of how to read the story (criticism on society, science…)
Thomas Pynchon:
“Since I wrote this story I have kept trying to understand entropy, but my grasp
becomes less sure the more I read…”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources:
Bischoff, Peter. “Thomas Pynchon’s ‚Entropy’“ in Freese, Peter. Die amerikanische Short Story der Gegenwart:
Interpretationen. Berlin: Schmidt, 1976.
Seed, David. “Order in Thomas Pynchon’s Entropy” in Bloom, Harold. Journal of Narrative Technique, 11:2.
New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.
Seed, David. The Fictional Labyrinths of Thomas Pynchon. London: McMillian, 1988.
Simons, John. “Third Story Man: Biblical Irony in Thomas Pynchon’s Entropy” in Studies in Short Fiction, 14,
1977.
Slade, Joseph W. Thomas Pynchon. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1990.
http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/index.html
http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/