Universität Augsburg 03.05.2005

Lehrstuhl für Amerikanistik

Hauptseminar: “Recent American Fiction”

Dozent: Prof. Dr. Zapf

Referenten: Ariane Busch, Stefan Füssl,

Michelle Stöger, Laura Strathmann

Thomas Pynchon: Entropy

  1. Biography of Thomas Pynchon:

Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. was born on May 8th, 1937, in Glen Cove, Long Island, NY. He graduated from Oyster Bay High School in 1953 and after that went to Cornell University on a scholarship, where he studied Engineering Physics. In 1955, he left Cornell for service in the Navy and returned in the fall of 1957, transferring to the College of Arts and Sciences. He graduated with a B.A. in June of 1959, with distinction in all subjects. After college, Pynchonbegan work on his first novel V which was published in 1963 and won the William Faulkner Foundation Award. A couple of other novels and quite a few short stories followed. Five of his early short stories, including Entropy, were published in 1984 under the title Slow Learner. Any knowledge of Pynchon’s whereabouts became increasingly valuable and scarce.

Pynchon’s style of writing:

On the one hand, Pynchon is said to be a “reclusive American novelist possessed by a certain eclectic genius”, “an architect of literary structures”, but on the other hand, one of his novels Gravity’s Rainbows didn’t win the Pulitzer Prize because it was called “obscene and unreadable”, “turgid and overwritten”. However, Pynchon’s style of writing is unique, electrifying and complex.

Five principal phases of his writing life:

  • an initial period of romanticized war-stories
  • a second of atheism/ logical positivism that led to a rash of science fiction
  • a third (and romantic) phase that brought imitations of T. Wolfe, F. S. Fitzgerald, and Lord Byron
  • a fourth of classicism that brought imitations of H. James, N. Algren, and W. Faulkner
  • a fifthfull of experimentation with the Byronic romanticism of the Beats, followed by a set of Voltairean stories, a foretaste of the satires written in his maturity
  1. Parallels between Pynchon’s life and Entropy:
  • Pynchon studied Engineering Physics and wrote about entropy
  • Pynchon’s recluse and avoidance of the press and public can be compared to Callisto and Aubade who don’t leave their apartment at all (p. 84), and also to Meatball who wants to lock himself in the closet when his party is deteriorating into chaos. (p. 96)
  • Pynchon is passionate about jazz music and is familiar with opera. This love for music can be seen several times in the story. (p. 81, p. 93)
  • Pynchon served in the Navy and in his story five U.S Navy officers appear. (p. 92)
  1. Entropy as a theme in Thomas Pynchon’s short story Entropy:

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

B)“entropy“ in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary:

  • 1) Thermodynamics: A quantity that is the measure of the amount of energy in a system not available for doing work …
  • 2) Communication theory: A measure of the efficiency of a system (as a code or a language) in transmitting information …
    3) The ultimate state reached in the degradation of the matter and energy of the universe: state of inert uniformity of component elements; absence of form, pattern, hierarchy or differentiation.

C)“entropy“ in Thomas Pynchon’s short story Entropy:

  • the apartment block in Washington, D.C.:

4th floor: Callisto’s hothouse  Webster: 3)
final run-down of energy, the heat-death of the
universe; ordered existence in a hermetically-sealed,
ecologically stable flat
3rd floor:Mulligan’s party  Webster: 1)
apathy and inertia, energy which is unavailable for
work; party disintegrates into chaos
2nd floor: Saul’s apartment  Webster 2)
communication theory, “noise” human speech contains
  • Callisto and Aubade:

- giving heat to sick bird

- entropy as a metaphor for decadence in society (S.88)

- Aubade decides to allow disorder (S. 98)

  • Meatball:

- restoring order within himself

- restoring order at his party (S. 97)

  • Saul:

- fight with Miriam about communication theory (S.90)

- entropy in conversation with Meatball (S.91)

  1. Textual analysis
A)Characterisation of the protagonists

Callisto & Aubade

leads a dream-like life in part French, part
his own artificial world, Annamese
isolated, intellectual,  unifies two
member of the Lost Generation, worlds
obsessed with idea of apocalyptic
heat-death of the universe
  • overwrought hypotaxis
  • bird motive: dying bird = destrucition
of the order of his self-created paradise
Meatball
“moment-to-moment man”, earthy, open to newcomers at the party, representative of the Beat Culture
  • simple parataxis
  • waste motive: symbol for the entropic
decline of the modern materialistic society
Saul & Miriam
argument about communication theory, biblical references

4th floor

3rd floor

2nd floor

B)Oppositions

A dialectic structure is evident throughout the whole text:

4th floor - 3rd floor

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…”

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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.