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

[Paul Mackin]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 2:28 PM
Subject: COL49 - Chap 2: sex, death and endings, happy or not


> 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.

Test will be if she picks up a present for Mucho at the airport,

P
>
> 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
>
>
>