Sir Oliver Lodge defined it as 'one continuous substance filling all space, which can vibrate light . . . be sheared into positive and negative electricity,' and so on in a lengthy list, almost like the Apostle's Creed.
**********
"Sir Oliver Lodge"
Vanderjuice probably found this quote in Modern Views of Electricity from 1889 but I'm not going to read that book just to verify it. Sir Oliver Lodge also wrote a book in 1925 called Ether and Reality in which he defends his definition of Æther even though it was already a scientific relic of the last century. His need to believe in an invisible substance with a major effect on reality probably stemmed from his deep conviction in the afterlife, having been convinced by several mediums that he could speak with his son Raymond who had died in the First World War. His belief in spiritualism was seen as quite a flaw in the scientific community because Sir Oliver Lodge had pushed the knowledge of electricity and electromagnetic fields forward by some distance. He even received a patent used in radio which Marconi ultimately had to pay him to use. And spark plugs! His family sold spark plugs!
"one continuous substance filling all space"
For some reason, this brings to my mind this quote from Gravity's Rainbow: “If there is something comforting - religious, if you want - about paranoia, there is still also anti-paranoia, where nothing is connected to anything, a condition not many of us can bear for long.” It's as if Lodge's view of Æther is that of the paranoiac: the connection of everything to everything else via some invisible substance gives comfort. It is all connected. There's a strong meaning to be found in having things connected.
"which can vibrate light"
I suppose the vibrations of the Æther is what supposedly propagates the waves of light.
"be sheared into positive and negative electricity"
Is that how we get electricity? Shine light into a razor sharp angle so that it is split into positive and negative charges? It doesn't seem right but then it also kind of seems right in that static electricity is pretty much the shearing off of electrons onto something that isn't particularly capable of holding strongly onto those electrons and, as such, you shock the face of your cat and it gets pissed at you.
"Apostle's Creed"
First off, Mr. Pynchon, it is "Apostles' Creed." Normally I would put this blame on Vanderjuice, the speaker, but since there's no audible difference between the versions, I'm going to have to blame Pynchon, the colossal hack writer. Anyway, I only know that because being raised an areligious person, I had to look up what the hell the Apostles' Creed was. It's just a litany of "I believe" statements. I guess, in religion, that's how you argue logically. You just keep restating to yourself, again and again, that you believe in nonsense because if you ever stop declaring you believe it, you might actually think about it and see the pure nonsense yourself. So what Vanderjuice is saying is that Lodge's writing about Æther pretty much just amounts to a bunch of "I believe" statements without seeing any need to back them up with evidence. The colossal hack!
