Pynchon's endings

[Daniel Harper]

I finished Vineland last night. So far I've read ATD, COL49, and Vineland. 
(Next up: either M&D or Slow Learner -- haven't decided yet.) While I am far 
from understanding fully any of the three books, I wanted chat a bit, get 
some feedback from the group.

While reading Pynchon, I get the strong feeling that what I'm reading is 
building to something, that no matter how obscure or strange the occurrences 
in the book, that each piece fits into a coherent whole that will somehow be 
elucidated or revealed by the end of the text. But in each case, the final 
chapter/pages seem to be more of the same. This is most apparent in Lot 49, 
in which the very title of the book isn't even mentioned until the very last 
line, and it's the very absence in the text of whatever fills lot 49 that 
gives the book its MacGuffin. Much of the pleasure of reading the book comes 
not from trying to sort out the mystery, but rather of all the strange and 
wonderous things that happen along the way.

In a sense, then (and I'm keeping this very short so I don't start babbling) 
the endings of Pynchon's novels seem to reinforce the idea that he's building 
complex worlds in and of themselves, and that a narrative linearity is not a 
useful way of understanding the text. I've seen Pynchon's works described as 
"Puzzle books", but I see it slightly differently -- the reader is thrust 
into the structure of the book much the same way the characters are, and it's 
difficult if not impossible to keep the whole structure in mind at one time. 
All we have while reading Pynchon, in a sense, is the last few pages, and 
some glimpses at the next few. 

Not articulating it well. Time for lunch. Comments of course welcomed.
-- 
No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.
--Daniel Harper