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Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

The Cosmic Web

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- by N. Katherine Hayles

An English professor with a degree in chemistry analyzes the novels
Pirsig, DH Lawrence, Nabokov, Borges and Pynchon from the point of view
of Quantum, Relativity, and Godel.

from the Introduction:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Introduction
Characteristic metaphors are a "cosmic dance," a "network of events,"
and an "energy field." A dance, a network, a field - the phrases imply a
reality that has no detachable parts, indeed no enduring, unchanging parts
at all. Composed not of particles but of "events," it is in constant motion,
rendered dynamic by ineractions that are simultaneously affecting each
other. As the "dance" metaphor implies, its harmonious, rythmic patterns
of motion include the observer as an integral participant. Its distinguishing
characteristics, then, are its fluid dynamic nature, the inclusion of the
observer, the absence of detachable parts, and the mutuality of
component interactions.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hans Eichner
If Galileo could be hijacked by a time machine, taught English, and
dropped into contemporary Boston, he would feel completely at home at
M.I.T. Shelling would have to be brainwashed.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fritjof Capra
The whole universe appears as a dynamic web of inseparable energy
patterns.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Heisenberg
Literary style arises out of the interplay between the world and ourselves,
or more specifically, between the spirit of the time and the artist. The
spirit of a time is probably a fact as objective as any fact in natural
science, and this spirit brings out certain features in the world... The artist
tries in his work to make these features understandable, and in this
attempt he is led to the forms of the style in which he/she works. - from
"Physics and Philosophy"

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