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A relevant link when this was the book of the month some years ago: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3261572 Below is a cleaned up and slightly expanded bit that I wrote (I've unspoiler'd it for readability but it contains nothing really upsetting for anyone's first read) from that discussion thread, since it pertains both to Pölker's story as well as the discussion of certain symbolism. There's some leadup for this one, so stay with me: To describe and predict a rocket's parabolic path--and really, any circular or curved kind of trajectory--while working within the familiar cartesian coordinate system, y = f(x) plotting formulas and all the rest... it gets messy. When you try to describe curves in that system you will struggle with fiddly data points and numbers, your formulas will quickly become fiendish, and it will be just plain difficult to think about a rocket's movements in terms of x and y. However, when you shift your foundation of how to represent those paths and forget about x and y to instead think in terms of angle and radius, you get the polar coordinate system. Now the plots of parabolic arcs are simpler to describe in detail, which helps with understanding and leads ultimately to mastery. So in the book, during Pölker's side story he goes over this same realization and paradigm shift that the rocket teams experienced. After shifting paradigms and mastering how to view and manipulate the rocket's arc, they could focus on perfecting their ability to predict and control it. A short while later he's out with his daughter (or whoever she really is) on one of her visits. And they're out at one of the launch fields and as a way to explain to her what these rockets do, in a very simple visual way of what he's working on, he takes his finger and makes a parabolic arc in the air in front of him. And there on the page, Pynchon references how he makes this gesture similarly to how christians sign the cross in front of themselves. Such a small reference, but wow does it unpack into quite a lot. Paradigm shifts, technological advancement, mastery of new concepts, seeing and describing the world in a new way, all capped off with a cartesian-versus-polar visual comparison, in terms of religious signs that anyone can make. One we've seen all our lives (the cross, cartesian, old, clumsy at representing newer concepts). And the other? The arc, new, expressive, powerful, fundamentally different, and the title of the damned book. But also it's curiously suggestive of the infinite (cyclical, "Infinitely Below The Earth" ) and also at the same time suggestive of the finite (death ie. what the rockets accomplish when they reach the end of the arc). The whole circular/arc thing representing at times the infinite and endless vs. the finite and fatal, to me, is really interesting. I think the comparison is that we end up taking the endless abundance of our own world and transforming it into a finite form. One example of this (no citation, going off memory sorry) is when the science of the V2 is described as first discovering the ability of a rocket, but then immediately taking its purest characteristic--to climb and escape and fly forever--and crippling it by limiting thrust and so on, so that it is instead turned into a weapon. The rocket itself is blameless, it and its abilities have been weaponized by us. A weapon that, as it happens, now takes a path along that ever-referenced arc to its path of death and ending. Another example might be this excellent quote which again suggests that we humans take a world of the supposed infinite and by our nature end up fatally corrupting it. quote:https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/257125-kekul-dreams-the-great-serpent-holding-its-own-tail-in Bhaal fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Sep 4, 2014 |
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Sep 4, 2014 01:39
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