COL49 - Chap 2: sex, death and endings, happy or not

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Lots going on in that motel room.  Robin's great post pointed out the connections between the flying aerosol can and the V2.

One of the reasons Oedipa comes across as a feminist/everyman is the casual, guilt-free, and very fun way she cheats on her husband with Metzger.

Little Igor in "Cashiered":  Pynchon' making a point about story-telling, endings, etc.  That the reels are shown out of order maybe tells us not to take COL49 so linearly.  We know there's no way in hell a Hollywood movie is going to show us the kid star sobbing as his beloved pup drowns, then suffering an agonizing death, so, by inference, all endings are suspect.  Oedipa's awaiting the crying of lot 49 isn't the story's end.  Could the opening tupperware party be the real end?  Oedipa retreating to her easy, cloistered life.  

Reminder:
http://www.ottosell.de/pynchon/varo.htm

Varo's first painting in the triptych, Towards the Tower, shows a group of sequestered women riding AWAY from something.  The third, The Escape, shows a pretty harrowing destination.  We'd like to think COL49 is the story of how Oedipa escapes the tower, but we're told up fron the tower is everywhere and we have to take it to heart.  No escape for Oedipa or Little Igor, no happy endings.  On the other hand, our knowledge of Hollywood flicks (what Pynchon calls "one of those Hollywood distortions) tells us that Igor can't possibly die.  Is Inverarity actually dead, or is one of those Pynchon distortions?  We know how he loves ghosts and various stages of being somewhat dead.

Laura