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MalignD at aol.com
MalignD at aol.com
Tue Aug 21 20:59:32 CDT 2001
Dave Monroe:
<<Still, I'm genuinely curious, what did you want that wasn't there? >>
I thought I was clear (don't we all). Pynchon chose to write a plot-driven
novel. The action moves forward on the questions that land on Oedipa in the
time she is Inverarity's executor. The questions are compelling: is
Trystero real? Is Inverarity (for some reason) setting her up? Is she
imagining Trystero? Is she imagining someone setting her up to believe in
Trystero? These are the options that Pynchon, expressly, uses to push his
novel toward.
He has, however, created no back story, nothing that hooks the reader into
what might be possible and why, to say nothing of what might be implied by
the facts and why. It is finally nothing more than what is playing in
Oedipa's head and Oedipa is a cipher. Is she paraniod? I don't know. Is it
plausible that Inverarity would hoax her in this fashion? There's no
evidence either way; Inverarity is also a cipher. Might there be a Trystero?
The novel suggests as much, but offers nothing, particularly. The last
possibility is a combination of already obscure possibilities.
What is a reader to take from this? Go read history? Be a good grad
student? Apply some textual theory? If that satisfies you, fine. I find it
unfinished and weak.
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