i'm new

[jm]

>
>Hello.  My name is adrienne and i am a new Pynchon fan.  I just read The
>Crying of Lot 49 and really thought it was great.  Since i don't know much 
>about Pynchon's writing or his other books, i was wondering if anyone could 
>give me some info.  I'm sort of trying to decide what to read next.
>
Well, there's the group read of Gravity's Rainbow just getting started.  A
great opportunity if you want to stay with it for about two years.  

>First off, i was wondering if this book really pretty much epitomizes 
>Pynchon or if his other books are different.  I've read that he writes a 
>lot about paranoia, is this true?
>
Pretty much.

>I noticed that the muted post horn and WASTE are used a lot on one 
>of the Pynchon pages, are these things used in his other books?  Other 
>than what they meant in the story, why are they so used by Pynchon fans?

It's a sort of clubbiness, as if to say, "WE know, don't we?"  Even the
nicest people fall into such habits.  

>
>I loved that Pynchon gives so much information because it makes the story 
>more real as if it has some historical background...but are any of these 
>things true facts. I mean was there ever a Thurn and Taxis or a play 
>called The Courier's Tragedy?  
>

Thurn and Taxis was real, but no Courier's Tragedy, I'm afraid.  "Jacobean
Revenge Tragedy" was a real genre during the time (naturally) of King James,
of bible fame.  There were real Jacobean revenge tragedies like "The
Revenger's Tragedy" and "The Atheist's Tragedy," both written by Cyril
Tourneur, "The Duchess of Malfi," by John Webster, and even a charming one
called "Tis Pity She's a Whore," by John Ford.  Shakespeare did some revenge
tragedy too, but his'd be Elizabethan revenge tragedy, I suppose.  "Hamlet"
certainly is a fine example, but more typical of the "theater of blood"
genre (due to its extensive and gratuitous violence) is Shakespeare's "Titus
Andronicus."  James Clerk Maxwell was real.  Woodside, California answers
pretty well to "Kinerette-among-the-pines," I think.  If you go look under
the western approach to the San Francisco Bay Bridge these days you're more
likely to find an upscale brewpub called The Gordon Biersch Brewery than
flophouses full of hallucinating ancient mariners.  

>I promise only one more...
>Now all this information was really great until about page 100 and then i 
>just felt so lost and confused for about 40-50 more pages.  Everything 
>started to become blurry.  I have a friend who read this book as well as V.
and 
>the same thing happened to him at the same spot. I wonder, is this intentional?
>Does he do this to make the reader feel just as lost and confused as Oedipa?
>

I've read _Lot 49_ about 10 times, I'll bet.  It's wonderfully full, and a
real treat.  The novel's form helps out its content, too.  If there's
blurring between what's internal and what's external to the novel, I'd guess
that was intentional.  Once I clipped a newspaper article and inserted it
into my copy of COL49.  It was about John Sunnunu (Reagan cabinet appointee)
using a goverment limo to travel to an auction of rare stamps, so it just
seemed appropriate.  

>Sorry for all of the questions...I just am really intrigued by Pynchon's 
>writing as well as his hidden life.  Any information or answers you could 
>give would be most helpful.
>
>Thanks,
>adrienne
>

You're not alone.             -jm