"Entropy" is of extreme significance for students of Pynchon in that it provides us with an early peak into the development of the author’s thought in terms of ideas which carry as themes in later works. Several concepts which play a major role throughout the whole of Pynchon’s fiction can be found here in several levels of childhood. For instance, the notion of entropy itself is examined again and more deeply investigated in the Crying of Lot 49. Another instance: Saul’s wife is "bugged by the idea of computers acting like people:" Pynchon year’s later inquire the limits of `acting like’ and `being’ through the growth of his theme regarding the Animate vs. the Inanimate. In reality, the reader may able to see robots acting like human beings and vice versa: Miriam would be "bugged" to no limits if she had been seen in this novel also. Pynchon’s talk about Signal versus Noise in terms of communication theory and information transfer strongly carries through to a number of his later works also. Sandor Rojas’ established behavior when a lady walks into a party or room is set in movement by certain clues "like a contralto sound or a whiff of Arpege." He is shown as salivating like Pavlov’s dog: later, in Gravity’s Rainbow, Pynchon intimately works with Pavlovian notions and theories concerning established manners of acting with regard to the major character of Tyrone Slothrop. Music, too, used as the common metaphor everywhere in "Entropy," continuously presents itself as a recurring thread all throughout the horizon of Pynchon’s work, as does the context used everywhere in "Entropy:"
You tell me (part 3)
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