"understand" Pynchon by studying thermodynamics, aromatic
polymers, quantum mechanics, or any of the other subjects as-
sociated with these names -- and applying the results of our investi-
gations to the explication of the novels. By studying whaling we may
become more able readers of Moby-Dick, but our ultimate apprecia-
tion of such a novel derives from much more than an acquaintance
with or expertise in whatever craft, technology, or science the author
may take as an aspect of his subject matter or setting. Perhaps the
absence of specialized knowledge precludes full understanding of a
novel, but such knowledge does not constitute a complete critical
tool kit.

The most abused of these critical "keys" to Pynchon is the concept
of entropy, a corollary to the second law of thermodynamics. Ac-
cording to this law, systems that produce work by the transfer of
thermal energy cannot function at perfect efficiency; thus the per-
petual motion machine does not exist for the simple reason that all
engines run down. Entropy is the measure of inefficiency in such
systems: the less efficient the engine, the higher the entropy. The
literary mind would probably take little notice of such matters were it
not for the fact that the world and the universe of which it is a part
are themselves "systems" subject to entropy.

Literary treatment of this subject, however, does not begin with
Pynchon. It has long been a staple of science fiction, from H. G. Wells's
The Time Machine ( 1895) to Isaac Asimov "The Last Ques-
tion" ( 1956) and, less seriously, George Alec Effinger What Entropy
Means to Me ( 1972). Even Flaubert, earlier in the nineteenth century
saw literary possibilities in entropy. Among his notes for completing
Bouvard et Ncuchet ( 1881) is the gnomic "Fin du monde par la cessation
du calorique." Unfortunately, entropy caught up with Flaubert him-
self before he could finish the novel.

Pynchon differs from these writers in that, less interested in the
running down of the world or the universe than in the running
down of the civilization into which he was born, he uses entropy as a
paradigm of the snowballing deterioration of the West. But unlike
some of his characters and certain of his critics, Pynchon realizes that
the concept of entropy can be applied to society only by analogy, and
that, consequently, no "law" says that a society's decline must be
irreversible. Indeed, civilizations do not decline perpetually, but
rather wax and wane. For that matter, the second law of ther-
modynamics does not preclude one's replenishing the gasoline in an
engine so that it does not run down; similarly, one might be able to

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