Oedipa, again

[Don.Lloyd]

I've always considered the ending of _Lot 49_ to be similar to
that in _V._ (the one before the Epilogue).  The _V._ ending is
ambiguous because we don't know whether to feel hope or despair
for Profane as the lights in Valletta are all suddenly extinguished
and he and Brenda continue to run anyway down the road "toward the
edge of Malta, and the Mediterranian beyond" (455, paperback).

So we don't know what happens to Oedipa either or which of her
"symmetrical four" alternatives (if any) will pan out (171).
What we do know is that she has found "the courage you find you have
when there is nothing more to lose" (182).  Can it be that TRP
is telling us quite bluntly that the ending is not important but
that how you understand and face that ending are?  This is how
I always took it, and it makes Oedipa, and the book, a favorite for
me.  (Although you might say I have four different favorites, all
for different reasons.)

Am I, like, way out in some discontinuous and only vaguely recognizable
reality on this one?

Your thoughts, please.  (BTW, how was pork pizza?)

Don Lloyd