Article ID: CBB000720329

From Fears of Entropy to Comfort in Chaos: Arcadia, The Waste Land, Numb3rs, and Man's Relationship with Science (2007)

unapi

Through the use of some purposeful anachronisms, Tom Stoppard uses his 1993 play Arcadia to explore the effects on man's psyche of the transition from Newton's Laws to the laws of thermodynamics and from thermodynamics to chaos theory. However, remarkably similar reactions to these changes are also reflected in works from the actual time periods following these shifts in scientific understanding. Modernist literature is believed by many to reflect a sense of depression about the implications of the second law of thermodynamics, which is exemplified in T. S. Eliot's 1922 poem The Waste Land. Likewise, the comfort provided by the revisions to thermodynamics made by chaos theory are reflected frequently in contemporary popular culture, such as in the current television series Numb3rs. Through the invocation of science, all three works suggest that man is uncomfortable with too much predictability and that comfort can instead be found in chaos and unpredictability.

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Description “Through the invocation of science, all three works suggest that man is uncomfortable with too much predictability and that comfort can instead be found in chaos and unpredictability.” (from the abstract)


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000720329/

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Authors & Contributors
Song, Jinwoong
Seiko Ishihara-Shineha
Frezza, Giulia
Jieun Chun
Nick Dorzweiler
Jiyeon Na
Concepts
Science and culture
Public understanding of science
Science and society
Popular culture
Popularization
Science and politics
Time Periods
20th century, late
21st century
19th century
Modern
20th century
Early modern
Places
United States
Great Britain
Russia
France
Korea
Croatia
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