Lists

Lists are an important way to classify and organize things or ideas that are similar. However, lists can often be confusing unless an explanation comes with it. I could write down "

- Enolate

- Aldehyde

- Ether

- Alcohol

- Ketone

- Ester

- Acid Anhydride"

and that would be a list that would make little if any sense to the vast majority of people. However, the list of words is not random as all of those are names of functional groups that all contain oxygen. That is what these three sections have in common. They all contain lists that would be difficult to decipher without other information. Foucault gives outside information to help explain his list of words that mean resemblance. Destry-Scholes had left a list compiled completely of names that went to a collection of marbles. With no explanation given, it is difficult for Vera and Phineus to find each marble's corresponding name. They end up relying on matching up he colors and shapes of the marbles to the name that makes the most sense. This relies on the assumption that Destry-Scholes did not name the marbles arbitrarily. They also relied on information from Phineus' research that would relate to the names on the list. However, they end up abandoning the attempt. The list in Pale Fire is the most confusing of the three. It is a list of letters grouped together by a board, that when arranged differently but in the same order form some words. However, as it is it is difficult to draw any meaning from the list.

These difficulties happen in science when trying to piece together what is happening. If you have enough of the right information, you can often figure out what is going on. However, if you do not have a large amount of detailed information to go along with a list, than it can become difficult to piece together what is happening. In organic synthesis, it can be easy to piece together the list of chemicals that are formed with a certain reaction. However, if the right information is not available, it can be difficult to piece together how the chemicals that went in turned into the chemicals that went out. However, even determining the products of a reaction can be difficult, which would be like the list in Pale Fire. You have something, and you set up a reaction where you thought that was the only possible product, but then you got something different. You are left wondering "What the heck, this makes no sense".