CoL49 (5) Cammed Out

Michael Bailey michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com
Fri Jun 26 08:55:16 CDT 2009


 Robin Landseadel wrote...:
>
>  Monte Davis wrote:

[ here I interject - and may have forgotten to use plaintext - ]

>
>> 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.

Wikipedia hath it that:

Physics (Greek: physis - φύσις meaning "nature") is a natural science;
it is the study of matter[1] and its motion through spacetime and all
that derives from these, such as energy and force.[2] More broadly, it
is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand
how the world and universe behave.[3][4]

  [ and in this broad sense, perhaps we can refer to the physics of a narrative

    by a similar analogy to "moral calculus" ? ]

----but it continues...

Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines, perhaps the oldest
through its inclusion of astronomy.[5] Over the last two millennia,
physics had been considered synonymous with philosophy, chemistry, and
certain branches of mathematics and biology, but during the Scientific
Revolution in the 16th century, it emerged to become a unique modern
science in its own right.[6] However, in some subject areas such as in
mathematical physics and quantum chemistry, the boundaries of physics
remain difficult to distinguish.

 [and in this sense, there are only small homeopathic doses of physics therein]


>
> 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.
>
> 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.

the sometimes unsatisfying nature of personal charity, limited by
one's personal means...
rapped about again when she flirts with diverting Pierce's fortune to charity...
the wish for some kind of institution that is both greater than an
individual, but also is concerned with delivering kindness...like
W.A.S.T.E. delivers its messages...

unlike the military-industrial establishment which, far from
concerning itself with individuals, actually makes them sign away
their patent rights...

Somehow in Pynchon's deeper vision, the wealthy individual makes a
path through the cloud chamber of the world that does in fact
illuminate particles of this alternative messaging system for Oedipa,
and in his promiscuous wealth-generating activities is a holy figure
for anarch-Arrabal, giving birth to economic activity - which is taxed
and crucified by governments and yet rises again - much as the Virgin
of Guadalupe does to Jesus? (and, being a miraculous creature of
another world, is beyond desiring but prompts awe.)


--
"My God, I am fully in favor of a little leeway or the damnable jig is
up! " - Seymour Glass




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