Pynchon's misdirection

[Dave Monroe]

>From a, uh, offlist mystery correspondent ...

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   Tore Rye Anderson's facts are OK for 2007, but we
must remember Varo the painter was relatively unknown
in 1964.  There were no English books about her, no
collections of reprints of her paintings in print. 
Anyone looking up her name in standard reference books
would have had a hard time finding any mention of her
at all.  Varro, on the other hand, was mentioned
everywhere as a public intellectual and one of the
great Roman men of letters.
   Why couldn't the name carry both functions -- to
alert the reader to Varo's life and paintings, and to
alert the reader to M.T. Varro, his life and writings?
 That is often how Pynchon works.  If you want the
surface meaning, it is there: but if you want the
allusive meaning, you have to do some work.  Her
paintings are pretty interesting, and there are books
about her now available, forty years after Lot 49 was
published.  The lack of information about her, before
Google, is a very telling void.  Pynchon would have
known she was virtually invisible back then, while
Varro was visible, that searching for the one would
surely lead to the other.
   Pynchon is recognized as a literary riddle maker, a
puzzle artist, as were many of the artists he values
before him. "There are studies of riddles in specific
authors: Virgil, Dante, Donne, Shakespeare, Joyce,
Pynchon."  So writes Eleanor Cook in her recent book,
Enigmas and Riddles in Literature: Cambridge U. Press,
2006. 
   Some people believe Pynchon uses something like the
Jesuit "code" for using Bible quotes as a code in
their letters.  Others believe Pychon does something
similar, using the Oxford English Dictionary
definitions much as the Jesuits used scripture.  There
doesn't seem to be a well-made case for either of
those beliefs.  Pynchon does use arcane words, at
singular moments, to convey extra weight.  In Lot 49
he has a character named Nefandis, and when we go to
the O.E.D. we find there is no word "nefandis," but
the word "nefarious" (and all its cognates) is on the
page where Nefandis is supposed to be.  There are
other examples, but this technique is not used
systematically. 
   Pynchon sometimes sets up elaborate puns, often to
lead us out of the text. Others have written about
this technique of Pynchon's. Again, it is analogous to
solving a puzzle.  If you understand Sophie Tucker
used to sing a song "Fifty Million Frenchmen Can't Be
Wrong," when Pynchon takes a few pages to set up the
pun, "For deMille, young fur-henchmen can't be
rowing," you will know the game's afoot.  You might
then "solve" the riddle by Googling for the lyrics to
the song.  But if you don't know about Sophie Tucker's
song, or if you don't know about both the Var(r)o's,
these puzzles will just fly by unnoticed.  All the
better for the surface reader.
   There is a story about Lord Bertrand Russell that
comes to mind here, who knows why.  When Lord Russell
was in his 90s a doctor in his 50s made a public
suggestion in an article: hospitalized persons over 80
should be treated with "benign neglect" as they have
already lived long, full lives; while sustaining them
is very costly, and occupies hospital beds that could
be otherwise put to better use.  To which Russell
replied (in effect): "It seems the good doctor is not
yet old enough to know better."
   Que sais je?

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Again, not my reply ...


 
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