Pynchon, Thomas, "Is It O.K. To Be a Luddite?"

'''Pynchon, Thomas. "Is It O.K. To Be a Luddite?"' New York Times Book Review'' 28 Oct. 1984: 1, 40-41; Late City Final Edition, Section 7, p. 1, column 1, Book Review Desk."

Starting from the 25th anniversary of C. P. Snow's lecture on "The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution," TP turns to the Luddite machine-breaking of ca. 1812 and its implications for the computer age (see this Category, K. Sale's Rebels Against the Future). Includes excellent comments on literature "Insufficiently Serious" from the point of view of the literary mainstream, esp. SF of the 1950s, plus some vintage Pynchonite thoughts: "By 1945, the factory system—which, more than any piece of machinery, was the real and major result of the Industrial Revolution—had been extended to include the Manhattan Project, the German long-range rocket program[,] and the death camps, such as Auschwitz. It has taken no major gift of prophecy to see how these three curves of development might plausibly converge, and before too long. Since Hiroshima, we have watched nuclear weapons multiply out of control, and delivery systems acquire, for global purposes, unlimited range and accuracy. An unblinking acceptance of a holocaust running to seven- and eight-figure body counts has become . . . conventional wisdom. To people who were writing science fiction in the 50's, none of this was much of a surprise. . . ." (Our immediate source: John M. Krafft, ed. of Pynchon Notes.)