AH & TRP

[LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU]

MantaRay suggests:
"One must include the anticlimax of Lot 49 and The Birds like I am in the
paper in my head. Also the female protagonist going up against a disturbing
order within disorder that is never explained. Just fun for loser/scholars
like myself."

Actually, this is a provocative point.  To what extent are the quest-objects
of Pynchon's novels (and there is at least one in each of them) just
McGuffins?

As you may know, Hitchcock called a "McGuffin" whatever object motivates the
film's plot but is not terribly important in itself--the uranium in the 
bottles in NOTORIOUS, the "government secrets" in the statue in NORTH BY
NORTHWEST, and so on.  Without these, we would have no film, but the nature
of the McGuffin itself is of little interest.  What *is* important is the
characters and their relationships, as well as the sheer experience of surprise
and suspense.

So, to what degree (if any) are the Lady V., the Tristero (and/or Pierce's
stamp collection, the "real" COURIER'S TRAGEDY ,etc), the Rockets, or even
Frenesi (as Prairie's quest-object) McGuffins?

Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)