TV v. God

[Otto]

Rob:
> Oedipa stood in the living-room, stared at by the greenish dead eye of
> the TV tube, spoke the name of God, and tried to feel as drunk as
> possible. (5)
>
> Interesting juxtapositions: "living-room", "dead eye", "the name of God".
I
> think that this one sentence encapsulates the futility of Oedipa's
suburban
> lifestyle, her own proto-yuppie angst. (As if that fondue-drenched
> tupperware party wasn't enough!) The ironic term, which is foregrounded,
is
> "living-room". Later on Oedipa will watch Huntley and Brinkley and mix
> whisky sours for herself and Mucho: it is the normal housewifely routine
she
> has fallen into.
>
> And, it's significant that the first utterance in the novel is "God": but
> it's the "name" only that she speaks, the term used as an expression of
> impatience or frustration. A blasphemy. Oedipa's world, at the beginning
of
> the story at least, is a godless one.
>
> best
>

Indeed, and the lines you are quoting are the first I'd underlined in this
book decades ago.

The way you put it:
> Interesting juxtapositions: "living-room", "dead eye", "the name of God"
is very interesting because it includes the complete logocentric triangle;
the binary opposition of life & death and God as the external reference
point.

Like the "lot" which seems to do the crying it's the inanimate that becomes
active, Oedipa is "stared at by ... the TV tube" -- who stares? Lawrence
Norfolk adopts this technique on the first page of "Lemprière's Dictionary:
"The book stared up at him from between his feet."

As we all seem to agree that the novel is about revelations we should not
forget that the disciples were accused of being drunk after having received
"the tongues", so in the light of this Oedipa trying "to feel as drunk as
possible" makes sense to me. I don't think that "normal" Christians, Puritan
or Catholic, "try" to feel this way (I'm sure that some kind of
hallucinations can happen to believers and I'm not talking badly about this)
when they're praying.

Otto