Singularity and Complexity

Thomas Pynchon has, over his lifetime, provided himself with ever more complex challenges of language and structure. Certainly he has entertained himself and most recently in Inherent Vice, entertained me. I laugh out loud, unable to control the magic of thought and word. Certainly, as has been proffered before, the reader's mind is doing part of the work, but how powerful Pynchon's control.

Occasionally I stop by the silent piano in my living room. I don't play, but I understand, the instrument.

I touch a key and a single note reverberates through the high ceilinged room. It crescendos and then fades - a skewed bell curve of vibration, battered by the currents of the air conditioning and the resonance of the glass, brick, stone and wood that cluttered the room. If I were to think that this single note is simple I would be very wrong. If my hand's fingers were to randomly touch several keys of the piano in rapid succession, it could be a concerto or chaos. Such is reading Pynchon. Sphere: Related Content