CoL49 (1) magic, anonymous and malign [PC 12, 40]

[kelber at mindspring.com]

There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of karma going on in COL49 (not compared to VL, anyway), but TRP alludes to magic throughout.

"... she wondered, wondered, shuffling through a fat deckful of days which seemed (wouldn't she be the first to admit it?) more or less identical, or all pointing the same way, subtly, like a conjurer's deck, any odd one readily clear to a trained eye."

Tarot decks, like batteries and circuit boards, have polarity.  When all's said and done, the difference between science and magic is in the eye of the beholder (the film The Prestige is a great exploration of this).  I think Pynchon blurs magic (or at least the mystical) and technology throughout the book.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>

>
>	Such a captive maiden, having plenty of time to think, soon
>	realizes that her tower, its height and architecture, are like her
>	ego only incidental: that what really keeps her where she is is
>	magic, anonymous and malignant, visited on her from outside
>	and for no reason at all.
>
>A question from Oedipa's Sphinx:
>
>	If the tower is everywhere and the knight of deliverance no
>	proof against its magic, what else?
>
>I wonder what tarot card the knight of deliverance would be?
>
>There is a coloration of malignant magic throughout CoL49. I've gone  
>farther off the deep end with this theme in Pynchon than anybody  
>really should but there it is, a note of creeping anti-magic, the  
>shadow half of magic. Of course, if "White Magic" is life affirming  
>then Black Magic must be death affirming, doing the two-step with his  
>good ol' bud entropy while still trying to pogo with drinkin' bud  
>Anarchy. On first reading my head was still resonating with Mozart's  
>Magic Flute—the LP era offered up LP consumption as obsessive- 
>compulsive behavior, I accepted. The three attendants to the Queen of  
>the Night = the three stars to the moon. By such roundabout ways  
>landing on Tristero= three stars. Which I guess is a little further  
>offbase than Varo = Varro.
>
>But if I entered through another door I'd still reach the same place:
>
>	. . . at some unique performance, prolonged as if it were the last
>	of the night, something a little extra for whoever'd stayed this
>	late. . .
>
>	. . . back down the runway, its luminous stare locked to
>	Oedipa's, smile gone malign and pitiless; bend to her alone
>	among the desolate rows of seats and begin to speak words
>	she never wanted to hear?
>
>Tristero is representative of the night and cunning, resonating with   
>'black magic' & bad karma. It is the dark magic of anarchy as well. As  
>we proceed in the text, Oedipa merely saying the word "Tristero"  
>derails and closes conversation. Later on we encounter 'ritual  
>reluctance' around that word, but we haven't even seen the name yet.   
>Right now we're just being tipped off to the presence of bad mojo. A  
>great deal will be made of the power of uttering of a particular word.  
>The lighting will darken. There will be ominous music playing on the  
>organ.
>
>By virtue of presenting Oedipa's story as a fairy tale with a maybe  
>not-so-happy ending, the author offers up the possibility that what's  
>really going on in the story is Magic, anonymous and malignant.