Oedipa's family

[jporter]

>From: Susan Danewitz <argus at boston.paynet.com>
>Subject: Re: Oedipa's family
>To: pynchon-l at sfu.ca
>Date: Thu, 17 Aug 1995 09:12:26 -0400 (EDT)
>Cc: argus at boston.paynet.com (Susan Danewitz)
>Sender: owner-pynchon-l at sfu.ca
>Precedence: bulk
>
>The Oedipus complex, of course, is of a male to a female, his mother.
>Alexandras or something is the female/father version, right?  Oedipa
>then would either be pre- or post- killing her father and marrying her
>mother.  heh.  this is kindof fun.  place Oedipa in the cycle:
>
>1.abandoned at birth
>2.growing up
>3.meeting sphinx & solving riddle
>4.meeting father and killing him
>5.meeting mother and marrying her
>6.meeting adopted parents & finding out truth
>7.putting eyes out, etc in despair
>
>(Sure hope I have the order right.)
>
>I'd sure put her at #3, wouldnt you?  She's definately trying to solve
>a riddle at this point.  Which makes her mother the one that helped
>abandon her, but whom she has not yet met.  Like Oedipus, she's had
>a fine time until her destiny has hit her.  The sphinx was sort of the
>harbinger of all Oedipus' "fate" -- until then, life had been rather
>prosaic, right?  I mean, typical California marriages, interesting people,
>but nothing like the Tristero significance.
>
>After all, Fate is the biggest conspiracy there is.
>
>So her mother is out there, just waiting in the wings at this point--at
>this point Oedipa is an orphan with a riddle.
>
>Susan
>argus at paynet.com
>
>(Just in passing, it is written on the jacket of my copy of V (from
> what i recall, don't have the book with me)-- "Stencil, searching for
> the mysterious V.--a woman who may or may not be his mother" --as well
> as giving away the way Fausto dies, "in a rainspout off of Malta."
> Obviously someone felt like giving away answers when they wrote that...:> )
>

I see (saith Tiresias)

jp