CoL49 (5)

[Joseph Tracy]

Robin Landseadel said:


> As we re-trace our steps through San Narciso & San Francisco [over
> & over again, the reader seriously looking for clues, a guide post, a
> center] we reach the stage where we realize that all the clues are  
> pointing
> away from the center....
>


>        Here in San Francisco, away from all tangible assets of that  
> estate, there
>        might still be a chance of getting the whole thing to go away
>        and disintegrate quietly. She had only to drift tonight, at  
> random,
>        and watch nothing happen, to be convinced it was purely
>        nervous, a little something for her shrink to fix....
>


> Oedipa is blind to the center of the riddle because she is the
> center of the riddle.
>


> On one level or another Oedipa is cracking up, losing her boundaries,
> becoming permeable.

OK. Well Still dropping in on the conversation, and surprised by the   
parallels  of the psychological literary effects of CoL49 to  the  
psychological effects within me of my own tangential re-look at the  
Kennedy assassination. I  also just read Libra, which amplifies the  
effect. One thing I disagree with is the notion that Oedipa is going  
insane( cracking up....), though that may not be exactly what Robin  
means.. And I even feel that she has a pretty good handle on her  
degree of centrality to the things she is researching. She knows that  
she is central only if her sightings are delusional (or if the author  
really is running a mind fuck rather than a satire) . Otherwise some  
very big things are at issue in the estate of Inverarity and she may  
be in a position to have some say in their disposition. She is in  
fact very aware of the dangers of self delusion and keeps trying to  
test  her own sanity and the results of her investigation.  The  
difficulties of finding truth in a complex human drama are far more  
than linguistic, or even the limits of Physics. They have to do with  
human motivation to hide things, the energy devoted to false leads,   
degree of ability to hide things or destroy evidence, the potential  
deceptiveness of a "simple solution" which is incomplete and possibly  
wrong, etc... Whether this oedipal investigation is about JFK or not,  
it is fraught with all these motivations, and it is about  big plots,  
bigger than killing a president or the control of the mail, because  
these are still means to an end.   In the end it is the size and  
depth of what she encounters that is numbing and overwhelming, rather  
than the question of its existence.

For me the biggest disappointment of the Obama phenomena is the  
degree to which he meshes with the middle and ruling class desire for  
someone in charge, the paternal.  What is this? Are we a nation of  
children?  Bush was the tough love Daddy and Obama is the patient and  
kindly but still strict Daddy, now brush your teeth and go to war,  
Daddy is busy fixing the healthcare system so nothing really  
changes.  I say this because the drama of our electoral cycle is so  
Oedipal. We enact the killing of the King and the "honeymoon" period  
in marriage to a woman who is old enough to be the new President's  
mother and in fact turns out to be his mother and soon realize that  
nothing important has happened, so look around for a horny new groom.

The Oedipus story pattern is some deep shit designed to shock us  
into  self recognition .  Doesn't usually work.









What does it mean




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