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The Crying of Lot 49: Thomas Pynchon

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Oedipa Maas pursues the shadowy Tristero organization as a detective and reader would, identifying clues that she weaves together into a grand conspiracy theory. The Tristero conspiracy takes shape when Oedipa coincidentally discovers clues ranging from a symbol representing a muted horn (which she later learns is Tristero’s emblem) to a reference to a “tryst with Trystero” in the fictional 17th-century play The Courier's Tragedy. As Oedipa analyzes these clues, she convinces herself that a secret mail system called Tristero is delivering messages all around the world, and she starts treating everything with suspicion. For instance, when her husband, Mucho, sends her a letter with a typo on the envelope, Oedipa even wonders if he could secretly be part of Tristero. Like a detective investigates a crime or a dedicated fiction-reader looks for symbolism in a novel, Oedipa develops a theory about Tristero by interpreting clues and then connecting them to “project a world”—or build a story about their underlying meaning. By turning Oedipa into a literary detective, Pynchon clearly connects her search for Tristero to his reader’s search for meaning in this novel. While investigating different editions of The Courier’s Tragedy for inconsistencies, Oedipa meets Professor Emory Bortz, who tells her a plausible but unverifiable story about Tristero forming in 16th-century Europe. Like any elaborate conspiracy theory, Bortz’s explanation finally links all of Oedipa’s clues into a coherent story. But this does not automatically make it true—it is still just an unproven interpretation based on ambiguous clues that might not mean anything at all. Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 is not for everyone (mostly I know this because I’ve recommended this book before and been dismayed when it was not loved). I do, however, get a lot of comments on my W.A.S.T.E. t-shirt. I’ve been reading a lot of books lately which are not easily classifiable, and The Crying of Lot 49 definitely fits that mold. For me, it is a wild ride through layers of conspiracy, alternative history (mostly in the form of an ‘underground’ postal system), some heavy-duty neurosis and 60s LA suburbia. When you have all that, it’s just a waste of time to talk about whether or not there’s a real plot. And it’s so funny! thing is just a big practical joke. Like other Postmodern authors writing around this time, Pynchon turns the traditional art of storytelling on its freakin' head and plays metafictional games that allow him to question the role of language in our lives… as well as the nature of fiction.

For now, I will give Pynchon the benefit of the doubt. Based on his reputation, he has certainly earned it.

Summary

I enjoyed the experience of reading this and, as I mentioned to a GR friend the other day, I have thought better of this book during the days since I finished this than I did while I was actually reading it. That tells me that the book affected me and seeped into my brain more than I was able to consciously detect. Maybe that’s how Pynchon works, I’m not sure. However, it is a question I plan to investigate by visiting his other works as well as returning to this one. It is the desire for silence that unites the underground in opposition to the Government and the mainstream political culture: Originally Oedipa saw herself as a pensive Rapunzel-like figure, waiting for someone to ask her, in the sixties, to “let down her hair”. The novel commences with Oedipa learning that she has been appointed Co-Executor of the Estate of California real estate mogul and ex-lover, Pierce Inverarity. No sooner does Oedipa learn of the existence of Tristero, then she starts to find evidence that it still exists on the streets of California: its symbol is a muted post horn, adding a mute to the horn of its traditional private enterprise rival in nineteenth century Europe, Thurn and Taxis.

Julia Bozzone (24 September 2021). "Overlooked No More: Remedios Varo, Spanish Painter of Magic, Mysticism and Science". New York Times . Retrieved 2021-11-20. She applies the “Law of the Excluded Middle”: "Everything must either be or not be." (Or the Law of Noncontradiction: "Nothing can both be and not be.") NOTE: You can view the many approaches to The Crying of Lot 49 cover art over time at ThomasPynchon.com Characters Arguably, Pynchon serves up a work that reveals more about method than it does about the subject matter of the quest, the world around us. She builds and applies logical systems where she processes information in a simplistic binary "either-or", "zero or one" fashion (pre-empting computers), according to whether it proves a point or disproves it.By the novel’s end, Oedipa is constantly asking herself whether in fact any of what is going on means anything. Is it a clue to be solved? Is it all an elaborate game left by Pierce to haunt a former lover? Does it possibly mean nothing at all? In the William Gibson novel Count Zero (1986), the multinational corporation Maas Neotek is named in honor of Oedipa Maas. [15] Grimstad, Paul C. (Summer 2004). " 'Creative Distortion' in Count Zero and Nova Express". Journal of Modern Literature. 27 (4). Oedipa stood in the living room, stared at by the greenish dead eye of the TV tube, spoke the name of God, tried to feel as drunk as possible."

I must say this before I get a bunch of messages from people looking down their nose at me. I do "get it" I got an A on the paper I wrote on this book but what I "get" more is that there is nothing to "get." It's the act of "getting it" and being part of that special little crew that does that makes people enjoy this book. They enjoy more looking down upon those simpletons who don't "get" it than they enjoy the story. Get what I'm saying? While attempting to resist a game of footsie with her lawyer, Roseman asks her to run away with him. “Where?” replies Oedipa. Pynchon devotes a significant part of the book to a play-within-a-book, a detailed description of a performance of an imaginary Jacobean revenge play, involving intrigues between Thurn und Taxis and Trystero. Like "The Mousetrap", based on "The Murder of Gonzago" that William Shakespeare placed within Hamlet, the events and atmosphere of The Courier's Tragedy (by the fictional Richard Wharfinger) mirror those transpiring around them. In many aspects it resembles a typical revenge play, such as The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd, Hamlet by Shakespeare and plays by John Webster and Cyril Tourneur. Indeed, Tristero’s rival, Thurn and Taxis, was an actual postal service and is still an extremely wealthy family in Germany. As in his earlier novel, V., Pynchon seems to be making a point about human beings' need for certainty, and their need to invent conspiracy theories to fill the vacuum in places where there is no certainty. Also, as he had in V., Pynchon laces the book with original song lyrics and outrageously named characters— e.g., Genghis Genghis Cohen, Manny DiPresso. "Mike Fallopian cannot be a real character's name," protests one reviewer. [1]

Contents

Entropy is a figure of speech, then,” sighed Nefastis, “a metaphor. It connects the world of thermodynamics to the world of information flow. The Machine uses both. The Demon makes the metaphor not only verbally graceful, but also objectively true.”

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