Pynchon's misdirection

[Tore Rye Andersen]

Dave - thanks for that series of relevant quotes and links! You might also 
want to check out this fine post, from a knowledgeable and frequent 
contributor to the p-list....

http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0701&msg=114275&sort=date

And I'll just add a quote myself, here, from Molly Hite's 'Ideas of Order in 
the Novels of Thomas Pynchon' (one of my favourite books on Pynchon):

"Like all questing heroes, Oedipa has traveled through a wasteland, but her 
commitment to the quest has prevented her from grasping the fact central to 
the novel, that waste is precisely what is most valuable. [...] Pynchon's 
detailed depictions of suffering and alienation in contemporary America are 
important in themselves, not just insofar as they further the plot. They are 
what is important, in fact. As the quest develops, Oedipa's world begins to 
provoke more compassion. Meaning seeps out from the interstices of the text: 
the interest of Mr. Thoth, the old sailor, and even the ill-fated Driblette 
does not lie in the clues each provides but in the meticulous thumbnail 
sketch of an individual life that Pynchon offers in each case. These are 
developed characters, and Oedipa's willingness to use them and then dispose 
of them suggests that she is still synced into the American dream. She does 
not value waste. She moves relentlessly toward the conclusion." (90-91)

Best,

Tore

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