IVing IV 'indict a bean burrito', p. 277

[Mark Kohut]

Alice writes:
"I does tax the reader, all this indeterminacy and ambiguity. The
ambiguity is fun because it invites lots of connections and readings,
but a close reading of the text, a new critical reading, doesn't hold
blood. It's just a his and her story of tangled lines. And, since we
follow the clews through a burned out mind, who forgets, gets caught
in his own smoke screens and fog, it's not possible to construct a
meaningful plot or traditional reading or characters and their
motivations. That the text only calls attention to itself and that it
is not such an attractive beauty has been tabled so that we may
proceed with the set-piece parody analysis; how the text means not
what, since its meaning can not be determined. Over- determining it?
Yeah, that too."

Here I thought we have been getting somewhere. So, I think you are wrong in saying that the text's 'meaning can not be determined". That is an overgeneralizing leap.  Certainly many aspects of it can. This genre novel, full of wit and P associations is 
NOT EVEN CLOSE to the overarching, purposeful indeterminacy of, say, The Confidence Man or Crying of Lot 49, imho. 

--- On Thu, 12/3/09, alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: IVing IV 'indict a bean burrito', p. 277
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Thursday, December 3, 2009, 6:48 AM
> I does tax the reader, all this
> indeterminacy and ambiguity. The
> ambiguity is fun because it invites lots of connections and
> readings,
> but a close reading of the text, a new critical reading,
> doesn't hold
> blood. It's just a his and her story of tangled lines. And,
> since we
> follow the clews through a burned out mind, who forgets,
> gets caught
> in his own smoke screens and fog, it's not possible to
> construct a
> meaningful plot or traditional reading or characters and
> their
> motivations. That the text only calls attention to itself
> and that it
> is not such an attractive beauty has been tabled so that we
> may
> proceed with the set-piece parody analysis; how the text
> means not
> what, since its meaning can not be determined. Over-
> determining it?
> Yeah, that too.
> 
> On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 5:07 AM, Michael Bailey
> <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > alice wellintown  wrote:
> >
> >> finish her statements, and because he assumes the,
> "I'll protect you
> >> position" here, I read it as Larry's misreading
> her yet again.
> >
> > yeah, that wasn't how I was going to finish her
> sentence.
> > I can't remember how I was going to finish her
> sentence...but that
> > wasn't it...hmmm
> >
> >
> > --
> > - "The doctor said give him jug band music; it seems
> to make him feel
> > just fine!"
> >
>