COL49 - Chap 1: Remedios Varo

[Robin Landseadel]

On May 5, 2009, at 10:06 AM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

>  Is the fascist/control versus anarchistic/freedom divide that  
> Oedipa discovers a political one?

I'm wondering if it isn't an esthetic one. The author manages to set  
up his stories so that we are plunged into an atmosphere of  
intellectual/political/comedic anarchy with plenty of nostalgia and  
melancholy thrown into the mix. Viola—"We Wish to Welcome You to  
Pynchonland" all sped-up and hicuppy and presented in the over-rich  
tonal pallet of 3-strip Technicolor [or psilocybin]—shot from multiple  
angles and central to the story, over and over again, in book after  
book.

OBA chooses to plunge us into scenes where anarchy is happening, one  
way or the other, lit up all bright and played over-the-top.