CoL49 (5) Cammed Out

[Robin Landseadel]

On Jun 26, 2009, at 1:25 AM, Monte Davis wrote:

> Robin Landseadel sez:
>
>> Terry Fairchild gets deeper into the physics
>> of The Crying of Lot 49 than anyone else, but this passage is
>> particularly striking and on point...
>
> Umm... whatever that is, it's not physics.
>
> -Monte

I was thinking of other passages in "Infinite Correlation in Pynchon's  
Crying of Lot 49," particularly when Fairchild speaks about a unified  
field. Of course, you may still be right, anyway. Can't claim to know  
much about physics.

On Jun 26, 2009, at 1:25 AM, Tore Rye Andersen wrote:

> I suppose my take on this crucial passage in Lot 49 is somewhat less
> optimistic. The meeting with the old sailor is certainly Oedipa's  
> CHANCE
> for an apotheosis, but IMO she doesn't grasp the chance. Fairchild sez
> that: "Oedipa greets the man with the simplest and most poignant  
> words of
> the novel: 'Can I help?'" Poignant, all right, but on the very next  
> page
> Oedipa herself answers the question (twize, even):
>
> "I can't help," she whispered, rocking him, "I can't help." (126)

While I can't deny that what  you're saying is true, I still see this  
scene as pivotal. Oedipa can't help/Oedipa must help. She's on a  
quest, a quest that has little to do with the broken sailor but she  
does deliver the letter to the mailbox, she watches it go on its merry  
way. The letter may very well reach its intended target. Oedipa may  
still feel helpless, but at least she has taken up what little action  
she can. She has turned—if only in a small way—from voyeur to actor.