Saturday, November 1, 2008

Deconstruction as entropy

I had a neat thought just now - well recently enough - a beautiful wedding of the mathematical and literary nerds within. I didn't want it to die with the essay it's going into, so...

Entropy,
is a wonderful concept - half obvious (intuitive), half impossible to understand.

Heterogeneity is a concept I'm engaging with currently. Heterogeneity in literature, heterogeneity of story - of voices, histories, narratives... Heteronarrativity I think I'll call it.

The urge, mathematical in source, is to relate what the authors (Z. and A. Smith) are doing
to the concept of entropy (really I should probably say that it is relating the word to the concepts...).
Where 'what they are doing' is of course my reading of the books, but you can stick it up your arse and suck it if you have an issue with the vocab.

Not at the same time, obviously.

The idea of discrete (mathematics again), coherent, monolithic, distinct, self-identical... of Stories as things Singular, and not Other than themselves... is being challenged and undermined, being replaced by an understanding of voice as heteroglossic, of story as discursive, of history as rhizomatic. The partitions, regulations, potential differences of the structures and relations of stories - or unity of story, should we be blinkered well enough to not even see the other - are being hacked at, dismantled... deconstructed.
Deconstruction when you sit and think about it (decrease its entropy would you, you reactionary fascist!) it doesn't involve disprovals, contradictions, arguments against. Deconstruction is more like generic 'kicking', shaking, putting in the boot - applying pressure and degenerating a stressed, artificial order by speeding up the process of entropy.

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