COL49 - THEY?

[Paul Mackin]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 3:30 PM
Subject: COL49 - THEY?


> Any other views of who THEY might be in COL49?  The THEY who hold Oedipa 
> in her tower?  Mark says societal forces.  Hollander would identify them 
> as the CIA?  What about the THEY who reveal the Tristero to her?  I say 
> some sort of analog for Maxwell's Demon -- all going on in Oedipa's mind 
> as she stays locked in her tower.  ANy other takes on either out there?
>
> Laura
>

We may fear or suspect  that some semi-omnipotent force is controlling our 
lives, with our own actions counting for little. .

'They' is the personification of whatever we feel we have lost control of.

Pynchon's special take is that we cannot be trusted to generate our own 
anxieties, fears and suspiciouns but must have them officially prescribed by 
'They." Presumably in order to serve their own ends.

As a counterbalance an effective we-system must be in place.

Or maybe it's truer to say that we can't know who 'They' are.

. It's the  postmodern condition.





> -----Original Message-----
>>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>
>>
>>Yeah.......The They in C of L49 is, mostly maybe, in one of its sliding 
>>meanings, the social structure that created post- WW2 America---very 
>>midway between the two novels. (here calling Cof L49 a story "marketed as 
>>a novel" as TRP did.)
>>
>
>>
>>----- Original Message ----
>>From: "kelber at mindspring.com" <kelber at mindspring.com>
>
>>
>>Paranoia's a major theme in all TRP's books, but the THEY varies. Need to 
>>reread before I blurt too much, but it seems as if the THEY in V related 
>>more to an amorphous terror of the inanimate -- "what's the difference 
>>between us and them?" sort of thing. The THEY in GR was much more sharply 
>>defined as the military-industrial complex. In COL49, we're sort of midway 
>>between the two terrors. Not sure that the THEY that holds Oedipa in her 
>>tower is organized or human, even. And she's guided through the Tristero 
>>system by pretty weak outside causes - stray comments, etc. Whatever's 
>>driving Oedipa's journey is internal to her, or at least internal to her 
>>tower. Maxwell's Demon seems like a central metaphor here. Oedipa in her 
>>tower is like a molecule in a box. AN equivalent to Maxwell's Demon is 
>>shunting her in the right direction, energizing her, causing her to do do 
>>not real work, but mental work. Anything she uncovers will stay strictly
>> in her mind.
>>
>>Laura
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Paranoia:
>>>The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact: One 
>>>sees more devils than vast hell can hold,...
>>>
>>>Devils real or just imagined? Yes, the Q: but either way---both 
>>>ways---The Tristero is some dark shadowy force
>>>1) in History
>>>2) in America now/ In America as good as always
>>>3) in any projection of a world?
>