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Vortex to Virus, Myth to Meme: the Literary Evolution of Nihilism and Chaos in Modernism and Postmodernism Julio A

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Vortex to Virus, Myth to Meme: the Literary Evolution of Nihilism and Chaos in Modernism and Postmodernism Julio A Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2004 Vortex to Virus, Myth to Meme: The Literary Evolution of Nihilism and Chaos in Modernism and Postmodernism Julio A. (Julio Armando) Varela Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES VORTEX TO VIRUS, MYTH TO MEME: THE LITERARY EVOLUTION OF NIHILISM AND CHAOS IN MODERNISM AND POSTMODERNISM By JULIO A. VARELA A Dissertation submitted to the Program in the Humanities In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2004 The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of Julio A. Varela on March 1, 2004. ______________________________ S. E. Gontarski Professor Directing Dissertation ______________________________ W.T. Lhamon, Jr. Outside Committee Member ______________________________ William Cloonan Committee Member ______________________________ Mark Pietralunga Committee Member ______________________________ Roberto Fernandez Committee Member The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii This dissertation is dedicated to my mother, Juanita Varela, whose unconditional love and support made this work possible. Her patience, encouragement, and faith throughout the entire process were, and continue to be, invaluable to me. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge and thank three individuals whose guidance and support were instrumental to the completion of this document: • Dr. S.E. Gontarski . As my dissertation director, your insight and encouragement helped bring out the best in me. • Dr. W.T. Lhamon, Jr. Your advice on the art of writing helped me approach this project with the proper perspective. • D.Z. Alfonso . Your engineer’s mentality, results orientation, and enthusiasm helped keep me focused on the task. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT vii INTRODUCTION 1 1. THE MATRIX MODEL: CHARACTERISTICS AND 26 CONTRASTS WITH OTHER MODELS OF CULTURAL EVOLUTION 2. ELEMENTS OF THE MODERNIST SOCIOCULTURAL 48 MATRIX: EARLY STAGES OF NIHILISM AND CHAOS 3. ELEMENTS OF THE POSTMODERNIST SOCIOCULTURAL 86 MATRIX: THE BANALIZATION OF NIHILISM AND FORMALIZATION OF CHAOS 4. VORTEX TO VIRUS, MYTH TO MEME 123 5. JAMES JOYCE’S ULYSSES: THOUGHTS WITHOUT A 159 THINKER, SEEKING TRUTH IN A PATHLESS LAND 6. SAMUEL BECKETT’S THREE NOVELS: 177 THE UNBEARABLE VIRUS OF BECOMING 7. THOMAS PYNCHON’S GRAVITY’S RAINBOW: 194 MATRIX, MYTH, AND (INFORMATION) MULTIPLICITIES CONCLUSION 219 v ENDNOTES 225 BIBLIOGRAPHY 227 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 237 vi ABSTRACT The emergence of nihilism and chaos in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries offers us a case study in how memes work. Memes are bundles of cultural information that display viral properties, sowing the seeds of reality in the individual minds that make up a culture, sub‐culture, or counterculture. In the case of nihilism and chaos, the ongoing epistemological and ontological revolution initiated by the likes of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, the collapse of myth as a totalizing source of meaning, and the transition from a Newtonian, deterministic worldview to a quantum‐relativistic, chaotic worldview transformed the Western cultural landscape, paving the way for the “viral” spread of nihilism and chaos to different intellectual and cultural strata. The matrix model used in this dissertation provides a fruitful way of approaching cultural dynamics and morphogenesis in general, and the evolution of nihilism and chaos in particular. According to the model, culture evolves when memes (viral bundles of cultural information) flow from the sociocultural matrix (the evolving aggregate of paradigms and epistemes that define a culture) to individual agents (authors and subjects, in this case). Authors and subjects function according to the chaotic model of the self described in chapter one, which defines the self as a radically intersubjective entity that evolves through feedback, renormalization, and “locking in” to a battery of attractor symbols in cognitive phase space. These agents assimilate the memetic material, modify and vii recombine it with other memes, and incorporate the memetic innovations in the work of art/cultural artifact. The work of art/cultural artifact flows back into the sociocultural matrix and changes it, adding the novel memetic material to the body of cultural codes that make up the matrix. James Joyce’s Ulysses, Samuel Beckett’s Three Novels, and Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow serve as focal points in this study because each work represents a critical juncture in the memetic evolution of nihilism and chaos during the modernist and postmodernist periods. Joyce’s novel embodies the “lapidary” modernist aspiration to create the great work of art which serves as an antidote to the turbulence and anomie of the early twentieth century. Beckett’s work occupies that liminal space where late modernism and early postmodernism meet; his preoccupations in Three Novels focus on the insurmountable problems posed by language in representing the subject and the futility of our epistemological quest to understand the self amidst the “spray of phenomena” that surrounds us. Pynchon’s sprawling Gravity’s Rainbow captures that historical moment in time (the end of World War II) when the modernist impulse toward totalizing systems of order and meaning is eclipsed by the postmodern embrace of chaos and semiotic free play. When we discuss 1904 Dublin, the haunting abode of “The Unnamable,” and Pynchon’s “Zone,” we examine three distinct matrices in which modern and postmodern subjects struggle to find meaning in a topsy‐turvy world where the totalizing rationality of the Enlightenment and the redemptive power of classical and Judeo‐Christian myth have failed. Lacking a firm epistemological‐ ontological‐moral foundation to serve as an intellectual immune system, modernist and postmodernist subjects prove vulnerable to the encroachment of nihilism and chaos as cultural contagia that mold and shape the evolution of a distinctive stream of consciousness. viii INTRODUCTION: THE AIM IS LACKING.WHY? FINDS NO ANSWER.1 I don’t know what it is, what it was, nor whether it is not less a question of ruins than the indestructible chaos of timeless things, if that is the right expression. (Samuel Beckett Molloy 39) My “dark night of the soul,” replete with epistemological and ontological uncertainty, spurs the creation of this dissertation and its focus on nihilism and chaos. This project examines three of the signature works of modern and postmodern literature that also grapple with the ostensible meaninglessness and unruly turbulence of twentieth‐century life. Within the theoretical framework I provide, nihilism and chaos are addressed as symbionts, such that each concept thrives in the presence of the other. This mutual reinforcement helps to establish nihilism and chaos as two of the defining themes of the modern/postmodern era. In negating metaphysically stable foundations (nihilism) and confirming sciences ineradicable inability to predict the behavior of chaotic phenomena, nihilism and chaos have played an significant role in shaping the twentieth centurys aesthetic sensibilities. While art, music, film, and other creative media have given vivid expression to what nihilism and chaos look and sound like, my focus will be to explore and interpret the role of nihilism and chaos in three landmark, twentieth‐century works (Joyces Ulysses, Becketts Three Novels, and Pynchons Gravityʹs Rainbow). 1 Before proceeding any further, a definition of terms is in order. What do we mean by nihilism? How do we define chaos? In The Specter of the Absurd, Donald Crosby describes a number of related types of nihilism, four of which are relevant to this study (political, moral, epistemological, and existential nihilisms). Nihilism in the political register came into prominence in Russia subsequent to the publication of Ivan Turgenev’s novel, Fathers and Sons. Political nihilism and anarchism have a great deal in common, so much so that some theorists conflate the two terms. Political nihilism involves programs of political revolution and terrorism in which the negation of traditional beliefs and practices is viewed as a necessary step toward the destruction of the social, political, and economic institutions in which these beliefs and practices are embedded. Moral nihilism can refer to at least three different forms: amoralism, moral subjectivism, and egoism. Amoralism rejects all moral principles and negates all the standards and constraints of the moral life. Moral subjectivism holds that all moral judgments are purely individual and arbitrary and denies any rational basis for deciding among conflicting moral claims. Egoism views that the sole obligation of any individual is to the individual. Egoism differs from amoralism, Crosby contends, in that it purports to be a moral position in its own right: “One is morally obligated to realize or to fulfill oneself at whatever price to others.” (14) Epistemological nihilism asserts that the scope and power of reason is sharply restricted. Reason can operate within systems of belief or meaning, but it has no power to address fundamental disagreements arising from conflicting systems. No basis can be found for arguing the truth of one system over any other system or for subordinating the patterns of meaning of one system to those of another (Crosby
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