Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Jamf, among others, then proposed, logically, dialectically, taking the pa-
rental polyamide sections of the new chain, and looping
them
around into
rings too, giant 'heterocyclic' rings, to alternate with the aromatic rings.
This principle was easily extended to other precursor molecules. A de-
sired monomer of high molecular weight could be synthesized to order,
bent into its heterocyclic ring, clasped, and strung in a chain along with
the more 'natural' benzene or aromatic rings. Such chains would be
known as 'aromatic heterocyclic polymers.' One hypothetical chain that
Jamf came up with, just before the war, was later modified into Imipolex
G. [Pynchon 1995, p. 250]
One might imagine that Pynchon could have got away with making this
stuff up; but I am not sure that he could have made it sound authentic
unless it really was (as, in essence, it is).
What is so special about Imipolex G? True to the nature of the narra-
tive, Pynchon succeeds brilliantly in uniting the scientifically plausible,
indeed even the prescient, with the wickedly sensual:
Imipolex G is the first plastic that is actually
erectile
. Under suitable
stimuli, the chains grow cross-links, which stiffen the molecule and in-
crease intermolecular attraction so that this Peculiar Polymer runs far
outside the known phase diagrams, from limp rubbery amorphous to
amazing perfect tesselation, hardness, brilliant transparency, high resis-
tance to temperature, weather, vacuum, shock of any kind […] Evidently
the stimulus would have had to be electronic. [Pynchon 1995, p. 699]
It was, in other words, what we would now call a smart material, the re-
sponsive skin of a deadly, almost sentient and all too phallic smart bomb.
For those not already familiar with Pynchon's style, these extracts,
even though considerably edited, will perhaps serve to indicate the diffi-
culty of summarizing what he means to say. His method is, in a Joycean
manner, to work with allusion, to be constantly cross-referencing and
hinting at broader themes. In
Gravity's Rainbow
, everything is part of a
murky plan, everything refers to something else. Entire lexicons have
been composed to help the reader navigate through the topic's complex
pathways.
But what must surely concern us here is that Pynchon has chosen to
place the chemical industry at the core of his Great Scheme. His implica-
tion is that, if Knowledge is Power, then knowledge of how to
synthesize
things offers the greatest power of all. In a rather different idiom and cer-
