| Title | : | The Cosmic Web: Scientific Field Models and Literary Strategies in the 20th Century |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0801492904 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780801492907 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 210 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1985 |
From the central concept of the field―which depicts the world as a mutually interactive whole, with each part connected to every other part by an underlying field― have come models as diverse as quantum mathematics and Saussure’s theory of language. In The Cosmic Web , N. Katherine Hayles seeks to establish the scope of the field concept and to assess its importance for contemporary thought. She then explores the literary strategies that are attributable directly or indirectly to the new paradigm; among the texts at which she looks closely are Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance , Nabokov’s Ada, D. H. Lawrence’s early novels and essays, Borges’s fiction, and Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow.
The Cosmic Web: Scientific Field Models and Literary Strategies in the 20th Century Reviews
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Hayles first book. This book is about the field metaphor in sciences & how five different authors approach it from a narrative perspective. Her chapter about pynchon is great. So is the Nabokov chapter. The others are also good but I am less interested in their works. There are themes in this that she develops further in later work (cognitive conscious, a phrase from the pynchon chapter) and it is cool to see those in their early forms.
I'm not a big fiction reader, I find hayles' writing about science philosophy through literay analysis to be quite novel and interesting.
