Pynchon and Relativity: Narrative Time in Thomas Pynchon's Later Novels (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781472528308)

Is time an illusion? Do past, present, and future co-exist in a timeless whole, or are our experiences of change and duration the reality of time? Thomas Pynchon's writing has always been interested in the interplay of these two ways of thinking about time, but his recent fiction has also taken on the task of imaginatively responding to Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which in the early years of the twentieth century renewed this ancient debate. In this book, Simon de Bourcier looks in detail at Pynchon's 2006 novel Against the Day, which is set during the period in which Einstein published his world-changing theory, and 1997's Mason & Dixon, set in the eighteenth century when Isaac Newton's picture of a world governed by absolute space and time was unchallenged. By comparing these two novels, Pynchon and Relativity shows that Pynchon's tales of loss, haunting, and time travel are informed by a sophisticated awareness of the philosophical implications of Relativity. The book goes on to examine the consequences of this for our reading of Pynchon's other work.

Author: Simon de Bourcier
ISBN-10: 1472528301
ISBN-13: 9781472528308
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Language: English
Published: 12/19/2013
Pages: 240
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.51d