Two Encyclopedias, Fat and Thin

[Tore Rye Andersen]

>From: robinlandseadel at comcast.net

>You ever closely scyre try the last 49 words of COL49?:
>
>"She heard a lock snap shut; the sound echoed a moment.
>Passerine spread his arms in a gesture that seemed to
>belong to the priesthood of some remote culture; perhaps
>to a descending angel. The auctioneer cleared his throat.
>Oedipa settttled back, to await the crying of lot 49".
>
>49 words, ending with "49".

I don't want to interfere unduly in any hunt for revelations, and I won't 
deny the importance of the number 49 in CoL49, but allow me one skeptical 
comment: Why have you chosen to begin your quotation from exactly that 
point? When the passage above is quoted in isolation, it certainly seems as 
if you're on to something, but checking the ending of CoL49 it becomes clear 
that the quoted passage doesn't really stand out in the novel like the quote 
above implies. If those last 49 words had been one sentence, or even if they 
had made up an individual paragraph, I would have been convinced, but 
they're taken from a larger paragraph (beginning with the words ""It's time 
to start," said Genghis Cohen") and one could easily begin that final quote 
in different places in that paragraph. The sentence just prior to your 49 
words, for instance, seems to belong naturally to the quote:

"An assistant closed the heavy door on the lobby windows and the sun. She 
heard a lock snap shut...etc."

62 words, ending with "49"....

o-or how about beginning the quote with:

"Passerine spread his arms in a gesture...etc."

38 words, ending with "49"....

The number of words in your quote may be deliberate, but then again, it may 
be random, and by hiding that passage (which could easily be quoted as a 
longer or shorter passage) within a larger paragraph, Pynchon has certainly 
made sure that only the true adept will find it.

Best,

Tore

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