COL49: lots of lots

[jbor]

Thinking on this a little more it occurs to me also that it is Pierce who is
closest to the author-god in the novel, pulling the strings of the narrative
as it were. As Paul notes he does call out (metaphorically, at the very
least) to Oedipa from beyond the grave with his "Last Will and Testament",
and it is this (absent) document which opens up the orientation and drives
the plot, forcing Oedipa to do a little bit of soul-searching (and
Zeitgeist-searching) along the way as well. I think that there is a definite
sense in which Oedipa, "Young Republican" and all, is functioning in a
quasi-allegorical role (much as Prairie does in _Vineland_ too I believe).
Also, the plot parodies or pastiches both the quest narrative and the modern
detective genre: a typically postmodern hybridisation.

best

on 8/1/01 10:13 PM, Paul Mackin at paul.mackin at verizon.net wrote:

> The sense of crying Rob notes is oddly heard by me as an ANIMATE crying--the
> lot being a burial lot--a tearful plea from across the grave as it were,
> although  I can't think right off  why Pierce's Last Will and Testament should
> any more tearful than most.
> 
> 
> P.
> 
> jbor wrote:
> 
>> The other word that jumps out from the book's title, and which perhaps
>> doesn't get as much attention as the multiple and ultimately indeterminate
>> numerological significations of that "49", is "crying". The auctioneer
>> "crying" the item to be auctioned is the literal meaning, but there is also
>> an ambiguity in the way that this idiomatic phrase is structured which makes
>> it sound as if the inanimate object (the "lot") is doing the "crying". The
>> word carries with it connotations of weeping (across any emotion, ranging
>> from sadness and distress to nostalgia to total euphoria -- thinking of
>> Oedipa's bubble shades here too) as well as calling out, and both of these
>> relate to the way the whole mystery calls out to Oedipa, its revelatory
>> force and persistence, and the soul-searching and self-doubt and depths of
>> despair into which she is ultimately plunged. There are quite a few examples
>> of personification of the inanimate in the novel, and it's an important
>> theme throughout Pynchon's work, and I suspect it is one reason why he was
>> attracted to this phrase for his title.
>> 
>> best
>