----------------------------------------------------------------
Serres Reads Pynchon / Pynchon Reads Serres
Hanjo Berressem
University of Cologne
hanjo.berressem@uni-koeln.de
© 2001 Hanjo Berressem.
All rights reserved.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Elective affinities. ...to fold onto each other two texts
that have similar diagrams and thus to open up a field of
intricate resonances: Thomas Pynchon's Mason & Dixon (New
York: Holt, 1997), a text about the genesis of America, and
Michel Serres's Genesis (Genesis. Trans. G. James & J.
Nielson, Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1995), a text about
the science & philosophy of surveying. In the original,
hypertextual version the essay contained links between
the two parts. In this text-only version, the reader has
to switch between the texts at the appropriate passages.
----------------------------------------------------------------
COPYRIGHT (c) 2001 HANJO BERRESSEM. READERS MAY USE PORTIONS OF
THIS WORK IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FAIR USE PROVISIONS OF U.S.
COPYRIGHT LAW. IN ADDITION, SUBSCRIBERS AND MEMBERS OF
SUBSCRIBED INSTITUTIONS MAY USE THE ENTIRE WORK FOR ANY INTERNAL
NONCOMMERCIAL PURPOSE BUT, OTHER THAN ONE COPY SENT BY EMAIL,
PRINT OR FAX TO ONE PERSON AT ANOTHER LOCATION FOR THAT
INDIVIDUAL'S PERSONAL USE, DISTRIBUTION OF THIS ARTICLE OUTSIDE
OF A SUBSCRIBED INSTITUTION WITHOUT EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION
FROM EITHER THE AUTHOR OR THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS IS
EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN.
THIS ARTICLE AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE ARE AVAILABLE FREE
OF CHARGE UNTIL RELEASE OF THE NEXT ISSUE. A TEXT-ONLY ARCHIVE
OF THE JOURNAL IS ALSO AVAILABLE FREE OF CHARGE. FOR FULL
HYPERTEXT ACCESS TO BACK ISSUES, SEARCH UTILITIES, AND OTHER
VALUABLE FEATURES, YOU OR YOUR INSTITUTION MAY SUBSCRIBE TO
PROJECT MUSE, THE ON-LINE JOURNALS PROJECT OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS
UNIVERSITY PRESS.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Works Cited: Serres Reads Pynchon
Adorno, Theodor and Max Horkheimer. Dialectic of Enlightenment.
Trans. J. Cumming. New York: Verso, 1979.
Cilliers, Paul. Complexity and Postmodernism: Understanding
Complex Systems. New York: Routledge, 1998.
Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism
and Schizophrenia. Trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem, Helen R.
Lane. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1983.
Guattari, Félix. Chaosmosis: An Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm.
Trans. P. Bains and J. Pefanis. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1995.
Serres, Michel. Genesis. Trans. G. James and J. Nielson. Ann
Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1995.
---. Hermès III--La traduction. Paris: Minuit, 1974.
---. La Naissance de la Physique: Dans le Texte de Lucrèce:
Fleuves et Turbulences. Paris: Minuit, 1977.
Whitman, Walt. "Democratic Vistas." Complete Poetry and Selected
Prose. Ed. J. E. Miller. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959.
455-501.
Works Cited: Pynchon Reads Serres
Krafton-Minkel, Walter. Subterranean Worlds: 100,000 Years of
Dragons, Dwarfs, the Dead, Lost Races & UFOs from Inside the
Earth. Port Townsend, WA: Loompanics Unlimited, 1989.
Lacan, Jacques. Écrits. New York: Norton, 1977.
Pynchon, Thomas. V. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1963.
---. Gravity's Rainbow. New York: Viking, 1973.
---. Vineland. Boston: Little Brown, 1990.
---. Mason & Dixon. New York: Holt, 1997.