CoL49 (1): Oedipa's a Head Case

[Robin Landseadel]

I wish/hope that you good folks reading this can point to the  
psychological implications of Oedipa's name and the role psychology  
plays in CoL49. .

Certain "jobs" appear through CoL49—Lawyers, Psychologists and  
Entertainers—with frequent mixing of the occupations: A Lawyer writes  
a film script as an indictment of the Perry Mason Show, the Lawyer  
that shows up for strip bottecelli out in San Narcisco with Oed used  
to be child actor, that lawyer works with another lawyer who wants to  
play the other lawyer [who was a child actor] in another movie . . .

I can see the lawyers/high finance theme coming in to point at this:

http://tinyurl.com/2gb8aa
[go to page 95: "Section 49. Who May Commit Waste"]

. . . this eventually this points to "The Wasteland" and something the  
author mentioned in "Slow Learner" concerning his obsession with T.S.  
Eliot's magnum opus back when he was a kid.

I know that the downfall of the Pynchon financial empire [George M.'s  
piece of family history] was collateral damage during a power grab for  
William Fox's "sound on film" patents—look for  "Upton Sinclair  
Presents William Fox" and tell 'em the Dude sent ya.

I know that Pynchon did his research on the uses of LSD that were in  
vogue back in 1964. It was being "tested" as a potential cognitive  
enhancer and therapeutic agent and was being used experimentally in  
the offices of a few select shrinks working the two coasts. Early on  
it was the sort of thing an insulated suburbanite housewife could pick  
up on out in shouting range of Big Sur, positioned somewhere between  
Santa Cruz and Ojai.

I'm guessing that the psychological language used in CoL49 points to  
deeper meanings than I've picked up concerning what happened between  
Oedipa, Mucho & Dr. Hilarius. Like somebody's finally getting out of  
their Oedipal stage, or somethin' like that . . .