Strong Leftist, etc/Lot 49 as jury-tragedy

[Derek Barker]

Richard Romeo wrote:
>Mr. B--
>
>I'd go along with your thesis but would you agree that Mr. P has  rather 
>ambigious motives for Tristero?--the reader never knows just how 
>sinister this organization really is.  Sure, there is the possibility of 
>new forms of political activism such as Tristero may represent against 
>the establishment, but seems to me, the jury's out on whether The crying 
>at the end will institute a reign of terror or a revelation (maybe the 
>same).

Or, let's not forget, Trystero might just be a big joke.  But yes, later on
in my
paper (you only have the first chapter) I go on to argue that the ambiguity
of the ending is in fact the genius of the story - it gives the Trystero a
Foucaultian resistance to single readings and totalizing politics, while at
the same time demanding some kind of political/ethical decision by the reader
to "write the ending" and finish the story herself.

Interesting that you mention that the "jury is out" at the end - I've argued
elsewhere that Pynchon uses the end of Lot 49 to suggest that the reader
is casting a "lot" in a jury in the same way that Socrates argued that his
jury was casting a lot, not just in his trial, but really in the tragedy of
Athenian politics.  As Athens becomes the tragic hero of Socrates's speech, 
Lot 49 is really a tragedy of American politics - one in which the
reader/juror is
very much implicated. 

For more on Pynchon & Greek tragedy, everyone who hasn't should
really read J. P. Euben's "The Tragedy of Political Theory."

D.B.