fondue (WAS: chapter 1)

[Dave Monroe]

A quick one, then I'm away.  Note that Oedipa is (I
belive this is a quote) a "former Young Republican." 
Given the goings on going on around her, this seems
esp. significant.  Presumably, she is at least, at
least in contrast with that omnipresent 60's Yoof
Culture, formerly young, but perhaps, at least by
novella's end, she becomes formerly Republican as
well.  

I can't recall who suggested this--I'm pretty sure
it's in one of the papers in O'Donnell, ed., New
Essays on The Crying of Lot 49, but ...--but there's a
nice reading of the novel somewhere mentioning that,
whilst Oedipa goes about her quest for meaning(s)
behind/beyond/beneath/whatever such crypticisms as the
Trystero, W.A.S.T.E., et al., she in the meantime
gradually experiences quite a bit of what's going on
during the 60's--poverty, alienation, what have you;
Hollander would add neafarious political machinations
up to and including the American equivalent of
regicide--right out in the open, on the surface, but
which perhaps what Nixon was later to name the "Silent
Majority" managed not quite to notice.  Something like
that.  Gotta get my Crying o' Lot 49 kit together ...

--- kevin at limits.org wrote:

> I think there's another side to Oedipa's role, which
> is the hip, liberated 60's woman.  

> 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.

But fondue would, of course, be the ultimate in 50's -
60's white bourgeoisie "fun" foods.   Very Young
Republican.  Think Rob 'n' Laurie Petrie ...

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger
http://phonecard.yahoo.com/