Entropic Transformations and Time in Thomas Pynchon’s Early Fiction

The paper examines entropy in its relation to time in Thomas Pynchon’s second novel, The Crying of Lot 49. It approaches this complex relation by examining how transitions from order to disorder affect narrative representations of time and temporal experience in the novel. The paper argues that Pynchon’s creative use of entropy consists in the delineation of the concept as distinct from mere stasis or cyclical repetition and in its application of the concept to the poignant portrayal of irreversible transformations of lived time and “local temporalities.” Time in The Crying of Lot 49 does not merely flow at different rates but also thickens or gets dispersed. Correspondingly, the novel portrays alternative temporalities as local niches, positioned ‘sideways’ in relation to the primary narrative frame of the text. In projecting these alternative temporalities, Pynchon’s narrative resorts to imaginative strategies capable of deconstructing the time of empirical reality by means of temporal reversals and simultaneity.