{"title":"Pynchon秘密公式的动量:引力的彩虹在档案来源和小说之间的第二方程","authors":"Nina Engelhardt, H. Engelhardt","doi":"10.16995/ORBIT.486","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Thomas Pynchon’s novel Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) sports three equations in mathematical notation, and the second of these has puzzled readers for 45 years: is Pynchon’s Second Equation real or made up? And what role does it have for interpretations of Gravity’s Rainbow? In this paper, we draw on scientific documents and material from the archive of the German Museum, Munich (Deutsches Museum Munchen) to establish the plausibility of the equation and determine its source. Based on our findings, we examine further instances of Pynchon's working with previously unidentified scientific sources, and reconsider the role of the Second Equation in Gravity’s Rainbow in terms of its relations to power and control, the life path of the 'main' character Tyrone Slothrop, and the novel's perspective on the ethical potentials of mathematics and physics.","PeriodicalId":37450,"journal":{"name":"Orbit (Cambridge)","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2018-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"The Momentum of Pynchon's Secret Formula: Gravity’s Rainbow’s Second Equation between Archival Sources and Fiction\",\"authors\":\"Nina Engelhardt, H. Engelhardt\",\"doi\":\"10.16995/ORBIT.486\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"Thomas Pynchon’s novel Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) sports three equations in mathematical notation, and the second of these has puzzled readers for 45 years: is Pynchon’s Second Equation real or made up? And what role does it have for interpretations of Gravity’s Rainbow? In this paper, we draw on scientific documents and material from the archive of the German Museum, Munich (Deutsches Museum Munchen) to establish the plausibility of the equation and determine its source. Based on our findings, we examine further instances of Pynchon's working with previously unidentified scientific sources, and reconsider the role of the Second Equation in Gravity’s Rainbow in terms of its relations to power and control, the life path of the 'main' character Tyrone Slothrop, and the novel's perspective on the ethical potentials of mathematics and physics.\",\"PeriodicalId\":37450,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Orbit (Cambridge)\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.0000,\"publicationDate\":\"2018-02-28\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"1\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Orbit (Cambridge)\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.16995/ORBIT.486\",\"RegionNum\":0,\"RegionCategory\":null,\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q2\",\"JCRName\":\"Arts and Humanities\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Orbit (Cambridge)","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.16995/ORBIT.486","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"Arts and Humanities","Score":null,"Total":0}
The Momentum of Pynchon's Secret Formula: Gravity’s Rainbow’s Second Equation between Archival Sources and Fiction
Thomas Pynchon’s novel Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) sports three equations in mathematical notation, and the second of these has puzzled readers for 45 years: is Pynchon’s Second Equation real or made up? And what role does it have for interpretations of Gravity’s Rainbow? In this paper, we draw on scientific documents and material from the archive of the German Museum, Munich (Deutsches Museum Munchen) to establish the plausibility of the equation and determine its source. Based on our findings, we examine further instances of Pynchon's working with previously unidentified scientific sources, and reconsider the role of the Second Equation in Gravity’s Rainbow in terms of its relations to power and control, the life path of the 'main' character Tyrone Slothrop, and the novel's perspective on the ethical potentials of mathematics and physics.
期刊介绍:
Orbit: Writing Around Pynchon is a journal that publishes high quality, rigorously reviewed and innovative scholarly material on the works of Thomas Pynchon, related authors and adjacent fields in 20th- and 21st-century literature. We publish special and general issues in a rolling format, which brings together a traditional journal article style with the latest publishing technology to ensure faster, yet prestigious, publication for authors.