fondue (WAS: chapter 1)

[kevin at limits.org]

On Mon, 30 Jul 2001, pynchon-l-digest wrote:
> From: Tim Strzechowski <Dedalus204 at mediaone.net>
> Subject: Re: COLGR49: Chapter 1 Summary - Thoughts
> 
> Although I'm not a fondue connoisseur, I've always been under the impression
> it's nothing more than cooking oil for dipping and broiling chunks of meat (and
> there's a chocolate version of fondue, I believe).  I don't read this as a
> foreshadowing of the Dr Hilarius meds, but I do get a sense of Pynchon trying to
> characterize Oedipa as a "typical" suburban American housewife of the era, and
> immediately facing her with the disconcerting task of executrix.  If anything,
> it seems the use of Tupperware and fondue serve to reinforce Oedipa's "normalcy"
> and to jarr the reader when Pierce's will (and Oedipa's subsequent role) are
> introduced.

Fondue, coming from the French for "to melt" is also "a preparation of
melted cheese (as Swiss chesse and Gruyere) usually flavored with white
wine and kirsch" (aka a cherry brandy), according to Webster.  These days,
Oedipa's tupperware party would probably feature catering from, or at
least inspired by, Starbuck's.

At any rate, I definitely see the 50's entrappment of Tupperware parties
and Hilarious's helpers, but I think there's another side to Oedipa's
role, which is the hip, liberated 60's woman.  Oedipa lives in a world
that has not only read _Lolita_, but seen the movie.  Her husband used to
be a used car salesman (the car salesman being the ultimate entrepreneur,
the icon of the 50's middle class dream), now he's a radio disc jockey.  
Her shrink prescribes "mother's little helpers," but she fears they might
actually be LSD, the hippest drug of them all.  There's a definite sense
of transition between eras in _The Crying of Lot 49_, but the transition
seems to be not revolutionary, but entropic.

--Kevin T.