Fallopian/Oedipa

[jbor]

on 8/30/01 3:37 PM, Samuel Moyer at smoyer at satx.rr.com wrote:

> Yes... and then there has to be some opportunity for adding new members...

She considers this too: "Perhaps she'd be hounded someday as far as joining
Tristero itself, if it existed, in its twilight, its aloofness, its
waiting." (125.20)

For some reason Oedipa is not approached to "join", and I think that at
least part of her angst is brought on or exacerbated by the fact that she
has been and is being *excluded* from both membership and even knowledge.
It's a bit like that _Seinfeld_ episode where the el cheapo carpet cleaning
firm fronting for a whacko religious cult *don't* try to convert George
Costanza but just clean his carpets and leave.

> but another question I have is why does she search?

She doesn't have much choice, being manipulated by Inverarity's codicil and
brought into initial contact with it all by apparent design. But I think the
point is that the prospect or possibilities are so mind-blowing to her that
she cannot but search, at first at least. And then the ramifications become
too much for her and she actively tries to "abort" the search (by seeking
out Hilarius, not following up leads etc), but fails in that too.
Ultimately, there's the repetition of that phrase on p. 124: "if only she'd
looked"; which is very important. Much of the revelation being laid out for
Oedipa is a recognition of what was always already there.

I think part of her problem is that Oedipa looks at things in an either/or
sort of way, as when she ponders the "alternatives" (117-118): "[t]hose
symmetrical four." (118.17) What she is seeking after is definition and
closure. In a way it's as though she's a modern girl trying to make sense of
and in a postmodern world. I think that it won't be until she can change the
way that she *perceives* the dilemma set out before her that she will be
able to "join" the Tristero or "(re)solve" its riddle.

best