One of the definitions found in the dictionary for the word entropy was "the inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society." Although Pynchon's story focused on two individuals rather than a society, there is still a sense of deterioration in each of the individual's systematic lifestyle. The two main characters, Meatball who lives his life as a constant party and Callisto the hermit like older man who cut himself off from the world, were two extremes of how a person can live their life. By the end of the story however, both characters systematic lifestyles deteriorate and both become tired of the paths they have chosen. .
At the beginning of the story the reader finds Meatball asleep on the third floor of the building in an apartment filled with partygoers drinking, smoking and listening to music. Everyone seems to be scattered at the moment but Pynchon mentions that the party is gathering its second wind and that this debauchery has been going on for three days. After awakening from a nap, Meatball is offered some "tea" by one of his friends to which he responds "No,no. How many times I got to tell you guys. Not at my place. You ought to know, Washington is lousy with Feds." This can lead one to believe that this isn't the first party taking place in this apartment, and certainly not the last. His friend replies to the rejection by saying "Jeez, Meatball. You don't want to do nothing no more." The reader can see that a change in character is already beginning to take place in Meatball. .
Meanwhile upstairs on the fourth floor, Callisto, a fragile old man, is awakened by the music being played at the gathering down below. Pynchon mentions that Callisto is holding on to a small sick bird that he has been nursing to health for the past three days. This begins to show Callistos quiet caring nature that he has. Pynchon then continues to describe Callisto's apartment as a "hothouse jungle that had taken him seven years to weave together.
That's what entropy is, the tendency to move towards confusion and disorder as time passes. ... Hickam said that the hardest thing he ever learned was entropy. ... He wasn't ready to accept the fact that it was happening, that entropy- a term that sounds so foreign, so remote- was going to be applied to his life. ...
When my research began I believed that this would mean spending most of my time on the First Law of Thermodynamics, but little did I know that it is the Second Law, with its relation to entropy, that most affects us. ... It is used to calculate entropy, specific and latent heats, and transition properties, often with good accuracy. Important examples of this would be Planck's realization when staring into a furnace that he could find Avogadro's number, and Linus Pauling's highly accurate "back of an envelope" calculation of the residual entropy of ice. The law, theorized in th...
A recurring theme in the novel is the phenomenon of chaos, also called entropy. ... "As the Demon sat and sorted his molecules into hot and cold, the system was said to lose entropy. ... Pierce Inverarity is, to Oedipa, someone who is able to impose an order on the entropy of clues that are surrounding her. ... In both cases, we need to increase the communicative entropy of our world. ...
-Thermodynamics-branch of physics dealing with processes and laws governing the transformation of heat into other forms of energy, heatmechanical work. -Some names of thermo-Rumford, Davy, Carnot, R.J. Meyer, James Joule-Kelvin/Clausis-thermo theory, Gibbs. -Thermo-study of macroscopic systems-mic...
Black Holes Every day we look out upon the night sky, wondering and dreaming of what lies beyond our planet. The universe that we live in is so diverse and unique, and it interests us to learn about all the variance that lies beyond our grasp. Within this marvel of wonders, our universe holds a mystery that is very difficult to understand because of the complications that arise when trying to examine and explore the principles of space. That mystery happens to be that of the ever elusive, black hole. This essay will hopefully give you the knowledge and understanding of the concep...
Black Holes Every day we look out upon the night sky, wondering and dreaming of what lies beyond our planet. The universe that we live in is so diverse and unique, and it interests us to learn about all the variance that lies beyond our grasp. Within this marvel of wonders, our universe holds a mystery that is very difficult to understand because of the complications that arise when trying to examine and explore the principles of space. That mystery happens to be that of the ever elusive, black hole. This essay will hopefully give you the knowledge and understanding of the ...
Black Holes Every day we look out upon the night sky, wondering and dreaming of what lies beyond our planet. The universe that we live in is so diverse and unique, and it interests us to learn about all the variance that lies beyond our grasp. Within this marvel of wonders, our universe holds a mystery that is very difficult to understand because of the complications that arise when trying to examine and explore the principles of space. That mystery happens to be that of the ever elusive, black hole. This essay will hopefully give you the knowledge and understanding of the concepts, prop...
As time progresses, entropy increases. ... When a memory is stored in the human brain, the result is an increase in the entropy of the universe as work had to be done to remember the memory in question. Therefore, we can only remember things in the order in which entropy increases. ...
