CoL49: Ch 3 Thoughts

[Tim Strzechowski]

I haven't finished reading the entire chapter ... I seem to recall the
reading schedule breaking this baby up into two separate sections, but I
could be wrong.  Ne'ertheless, here's a coupla wayward points I thought
I'd make:

"Yet, if [Oedipa] hadn't been set up or sensitized, first by her
peculiar seduction, then by the other, almost offhand things, what after
all could the mute stamps have told her, remaining then as they would've
only ex-rivals, cheated as she by death, about to be broken up into
lots, on route to any number of new masters?" (Harper Perennial, 45)

I like this sentence.  There's so much of Pynchon in general and this
book in particular packed into it.  Not only does it further the
paranoia and notion of "hidden meanings" found previously, but the "mute
stamps" foreshadow the muted post horn we shall see shortly.  The phrase
"cheated by death" harkens back to our discussions of Tupperware /
preservation, and of course the whole idea of Oedipa's "seduction" being
something suspicious is a Pynchonesque motif of using sex / seduction as
part of a grander "plot" or conspiracy (cf. Slothrop and Katje in _GR_,
for example). Has there been a threaded discussion yet on Pynchon's use
of sex and seduction as a means of conspiring?

"We're the only bar in the area, you know, has a strictly electronic
music policy."
"Live?" Metzger said, "electronic music, live?"
"They put it on tape . . ."

This exchange is humorously prophetic, given many of today's musical
artists and their reliance on pre-recorded, lip-synched, techno-driven
musicianship.  I can't help recalling a passage in _GR_ where a
character intimates that in the future the only item of value will be
information (or something to that effect).

Also, Dave Monroe is right on with his noting the variety of
uncertainties brought up in the Peter Pinguid Society section.  In fact,
the IF/THEN statements when discussing the "Bogatir" and "Gaidamak" not
only add to the paranoia/conspiracy motif (who to believe?  what to
believe?), but they also tie this Civil War-era event (fictional?) to
the Cold War paranoia of roughly the time of writing because "that was
the very first military confrontation between Russia and America" (50).

Manny Di Presso = "manic depressive" ???   har-har-har . . .

Finally, I liked the mail call scene at The Scope.  Reminded me of Suck
Hour at the Sailor's Grave.  Pynchon just loves absurd little tavern
scenes, doesn't he?!!

Tim