Quirks of the Quantum: Postmodernism and Contemporary American Fiction

Introduction

Introduction This book is not about physics, let alone mathematics, equations , or matrices, but is about conflicting and controversial quantum theories in books written by scientists for the general public and their effect on the fiction writers and texts I discuss. It is about the quantum, subatomic realm, that elusive “bottom line” of all quantum theories, as represented and explored in these books, which are clearly limited when it comes to discussing actual experiments and mathematics. There is no single quantum theory that explains all, although I will often use that term as a general description of the several different and competing theories in an effort to depict their basic opposition to Newton’s classical physics of matter and motion and the resulting difficulties they create in terms of the language used to describe them. “Quantum theory” constructs a philosophical basis for quantum physics, as opposed to “quantum mechanics,” which deals with mathematical formulae and experiments. The Standard Model at present with its sixty named particles, as we shall see, has been accepted by many physicists as the best overall theory about the quantum world from the point of view of particle physics. To truly understand quantum mechanics as a science, one would have to study mathematics. This book does not do that, nor is it meant to. It is concerned instead with the scientists’ use of certain tropes, metaphors, and models that can suggest and define only so much in conveying the labyrinthine complexities and meaning of the various quantum theories as theories—and how several postmodern American writers have responded to these theories in terms of their own fiction . This is a book, therefore, about the influence of quantum theory on 2 : quir ks of the qua ntum selected authors and their use of various quantum images and analogous styles and structures (as they see them from their own perspective on and understanding of quantum theories) in their fiction. It is thus about quantum theories and their effects on particular writers as they comprehend, assess, and respond to them in their work. Allphysicistsagreeonthemysteriousness,invisibility, and inaccessibility of the quantum realm and have likened it to a kind of flux, fog, or buzz, which willbediscussedinchapter1.Whilewecannotvisualize that subatomic realm andcanonlymakeeducatedguessesabouthowitexists,inexperimentswecan measure the tracks and trails of particles that are randomly ejected from individual atoms in the form of radiation. These measurements, however, show us that the quantum world exists in the form of both particles and waves, neither of which can be seen simultaneously, and each of which is mutually exclusive in terms of the measuring instruments we use. For instance, as John Baggott suggests, “Wave-particle duality is manifested by the appearance of bright spots on the photographic film, showing where individual particles have been detected, but grouped into alternate bright and dark bands characteristic of wave interference” (185). This particle-wave conundrum, one of the elemental mysteries of the quantum realm—it defies and makes problematic our language and logic in terms of how we can define the both of them—has led to several different theories, which will be discussed in the first chapter. Einstein believed that all quantum theories were incomplete since they do not confirm the independent existence of the quantum realm in all its many phases and descriptions. He would probably have agreed with Daniel Dennett, who asserted on the one hand that “given the way dualism wallows in mystery, accepting dualism is giving up” (qtd. in Baggott 247). Niels Bohr, on the other hand, readily accepted the dualism provided by the contrasting particle-wave appearances, recognizing that for him that dualism, as he defined it, remained “the central mystery at the heart of quantum theory” (qtd. in Baggott 329). He believed that we can only describe what we can see and not nature itself, thus setting up the debatable but generally accepted idea that what we know of the quantum world depends solely on our observations of it, and that those observations and measurements are all that we can know. In this he was joined by Werner Heisenberg, whose uncertainty principle revealed that we cannot locate a particle’s posi- Introduction : 3 tion and its velocity (as a wave?) simultaneously. Contradiction occurs only because our language describes the situation as such, not because of quantum realities. Still others have come up with theories that involve hidden variables, which have been largely discredited, and string theory, which attempts to describe...