How
to do justice to this novel? That is my dilemma. There's a moment in
Paradox when our hero, Tom Corcorigan, has to explain his thinking before a
Review Committee, and I feel like this now.
A cursory reading of this book would say that it's quite an exciting narrative,
full of action and drama. It certainly seems to be pacier than Meaney's
previous offering, 'To Hold Infinity'. However, it could be said that
Paradox lacks some of the characterisation which served his first novel so
well. It may seem that Meaney has got too carried away with his ideas,
and the novel does appear to be rushed in places. With the inclusion of
'Karyn's Tale', there's also the suspicion of a "fix-up" (as Dave
Langford writes in SFX, this is where a short story has been grafted in to pad
up the pages of the novel). John Meaney is a master of the martial arts
as well as the literary arts, so Tom's training with the Maestro could be
gratuitously tacked on too. One could confuse Tom's stallion figurine
with Deckard's unicorn in 'Blade Runner'. A criticism which could be
leveled at this novel, for all its math, is that the sum of its parts doesn't
make a very comfortable whole.
However, it's
not without a great deal of justification that I've just called John Meaney a
master of the literary arts, for there is a pattern here, a discernible
narrative thread which is incredibly exciting. I think that the only real
criticism to be leveled at this novel is that it's pitched to a very select
audience. Having said that, you can still get a great sense of drama from the
novel even if you don't understand what the Chaos Tom is talking about to that
Review Committee. I've interviewed John Meaney, and one word which he
tends to say a lot is "fractal". To me, this term is
inextricably linked to Chaos Theory. If you do some research on Chaos,
then a lot of pieces in the jigsaw which makes up Paradox seem to fit
together. John Meaney has realised how exciting Chaos theory is for
fiction, because it clears the path for the character of the rebel.
The world of Nulapeiron is governed by the Logic Lords and the Oracles,
who truecast the future. The Lords and the Oracles say that the rebellion
is futile, since the future has been predetermined, entropy has been
preordained. However, there are inequalities in Nulapeiron -
Meaney's creation is clearly a model of the West. The poorest people
live at the lower levels of Nulapeiron, whilst the rich folk live above, with
only the poor few, like Tom, rarely transgressing the manholes into the
upper strata. So, although there can be no rebellion, the temptations to
lead an uprising are high.
Nulapeiron society seems to be based on negentropy (the opposite of entropy -
where unexpected events happen). However, the Oracles pervert negentropy
by using their truecasts as a power base, denying free will, and refusing to
act on their precognitions of disaster. But negentropy
(information/knowledge), is a very shaky pillar on which to stand - what
happens when someone finds out something which you don't know?
The novel begins when the young Tom Corcorigan is give an info-crystal by a
mysterious woman, who is brutally hunted and killed by Nulapeiron's security
forces. At her moment of death, Tom learns that she's one of the fabled
race of Pilots... It's not long before Tom's world is disrupted even
further by the abduction of his mother by an Oracle and the death of his
father. As a teenager in a static society, Tom's careful reading of
Karyn's Tale from the info-crystal could just serve as a imaginative means of
escape. But as he uses his wits to become upwardly-mobile, he starts to
realise the true significance of the data, and that it could be used as a means
of revenge...
Such thrusting individualism would seem to be the very stuff of Western
fiction, a single figure as hero. But is Tom doomed by the Oracles as
Oedipus was? Maybe not, for Chaos seems to be greatly related to Eastern
philosophy (Paradox mentions the 'I, Ching'). The Logic Lords are taught
Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War', and the Pilots have their sensei and martial arts,
which Tom also employs. However, the school at which the Pilots are
trained seems to be a bridge between East and West, inhabited by both sensei
and nuns. It's significant that it's called the Via Lucis Institute,
as this has messianic overtones. So much so, that I think it would be
quite valid to compare this novel with Mary Doria Russell's 'The
Sparrow'. Chaos theory does let God back into the picture, after
all. No doubt the members of Tom's resistance cell, the Ludus Vitae, were
also partially inspired by Einstein's comments about God playing dice with the
universe.
At times, it seems as though Paradox could easily become dated by being too
informed by twentieth century science, and may have already been superseded by
events (when I interviewed John two years ago, he mentioned that Bantam had
already bought his second novel, which his editor regarded as 'Dickensenian' -
note the Ragged School in Paradox). The Big Crunch would seem to be a
vital aspect of this story, but recent research on supernova tends to
suggest that there's some force in space continually expanding the universe,
contrary to gravity. Meaney also mentions twentieth century thinkers such as
Kurt Godel and Alan Turing, which seems a little out of place at
first. However, there is also continuity of sorts here, since Godel's
theorem seems to be inextricably linked to Epimenides's paradox: 'This
statement is a falsehood' (which Meaney also mentions). Since Meaney's
novel is about paradox, he can scarcely ignore Godel. Similarly, Tom's
not being able to act on foreknowledge in the resistance cell places him in the
same dilemma which Turing no doubt faced during his work in Hut Six (for
another literary approach to Godel and Turing's ideas, try 'Uncle Petros and
Goldbach's Conjecture' by Apostles Doxiadis). Meaney also chucks in a bit
of 'String Theory' (also known as 'The Theory of Everything'). You've
certainly got to admire John Meaney's scope and ambition (the phrase 'life, the
universe, and everything' comes into mind when discussing this novel).
And any fiction which involves Kurt Godel also has to be given the benefit of
the doubt. Meaney has expressed criticism of C.P. Snow's division of
science and the humanities in the past, and in this novel he's provided a
sturdy bridge between the two. It's also one of the most rich, spiritual,
and stimulating literary novels of the year.
AuthorTrek
Rating: 9/10
Kevin
Patrick Mahoney
Visit
our John Meaney page
Below
are a series of links related to concepts in the novel:
Fractal Chaos -
this website gives you a great insight into the world of Paradox. John
Meaney would appear to be the consummate ambassador of Chaos Theory in SF
today. Under Chaos, one man can create a difference - a very attractive
prospect for a Western author. But Chaos is also related to Eastern
Philosophy (note the 'I, Ching' link). God and Negentropy are also
discussed here.
A Theory of Everything: Virtual Chaos -
an interesting site if you can stand the cheesy music.
Precognition -
Information from the Future: handy for everyday Oracles.
Consciousness and the
Theory of Everything - this site links Superstring Theory with Eastern
Philosophy.
String Theory -
Encyclopedia.com's definition
What is String Theory -
provides a summary and links to other sites.
Negentropy 2 -
definition
Randomness and
Mathetical Proof - discusses Godel and paradoxes.
Godel and his
Incompleteness Theorem
Godel, Escher, Bach - looks
like an intriguing book by Douglas Hofstadter.
Self-Referencial
and other Nonsensical Sentences - more of the above.
Turing
Machines and Computability - mentions paradoxes
A Century of
Controversy over the Foundations of Mathematics by G. J.
Chaitin. Turing and Godel together again.
Uncle Petros and Goldbach's
Conjecture by Apostolos Doxiadis - this novel features cameos from
both Kurt Godel and Alan Turing. See my Apostolos
Doxiadis page for more Godel and Turing links, and my crap theorising
as I attempt to hold infinity!
Big Bang
Blueprints:Virtual Chaos - discusses the big crunch and the flat universe,
and also acknowledges that this is an area which we still don't know much
about, although the authors do speculate that virtual chaos could be the
key. Which is probably why John Meaney chose to cover these issues in
Paradox.
Fractals, Evolution,
and the I Ching - mentions the martial arts relationship to the
Eastern concept of creativity.
Via
Crucis, Via Lucis - Isaiah: the relevant passage
Jim Davies and
Jim Woodcock - John Meaney employed their logic proof-tree.
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