Lot 49 Ch 3 Random Notes & Shit [part the first]

[Robin Landseadel]

On May 16, 2009, at 11:37 PM, rich wrote:

> Perennial 1990, pgs 44-80

Perennial Classics Ed. 1999, pgs 31-63

> pg. 44

pg. 30

> "Things then...turning curious"--rather standard detective novel  
> boilerplate?

Maybe/also Alice in Wonderland styled phrasing: "Things then did not  
delay in turning curious."

> "that's what would haunt her"--there's lots of these looking back on
> references in this chapter--reminds me of some comments that maybe the
> end of the book is not the end of the book--as if Oedipa is reviewing
> how she got to be where she is (back in her tower or within some other
> mysterious dispensation?)
>
> "revelations in progress around her"--could be but could also be
> Oedipa's plunge into solipsism or Pierce's clever sickness

One way or the other [though] these pages say "revelations" as do so  
many pages in CoL49, that's the master template of the books—taking  
what seems to be small details, then expanding them into "revelations."

> 44-45
>
> "revelation thru stamp collection"--referencing the end of the book

31-32 Revelations in progress everywhere, though this is one of those  
revelations [like many in CoL49] delayed/deferred/re-routed. She never  
really looked at the stamps all that closely while she was with  
Pierce, they constituted a rival for her affections. Now they have  
taken center stage in Oed's odd quest. Note as well the quality of  
language surrounding her first engagement with the stamp collection:  
"as if . . .   . . .there were revelation in progress all around her",  
"Much of the revelation was to come through the stamp collection",  
"Little colored windows of space and time", "no suspicion at all that  
it might have something to tell her". We hear of a sensitizing, as if  
Oedipa's nervous system is being re-tuned for this new quest. Of  
course what we really have going on here is TRP's quest, his concerns  
for connecting the dots, his sensitizing.

> 46

33

> Potsmaster--despite the WASTE connection I think Pynchon likes these
> goofy puns--pot master. ha

I think Pynchon likes Pot. Evidence in and out of his books points to  
Pot as one of those quotidian lifestyle details that OBA folds into  
all his novels.

	"So they make misprints," Metzger said, "let them. As long as
	they're careful about not pressing the wrong button, you know?"

That "revelation in progress all around her" is [usually silently]  
conflated with nuclear apocalypse. "The Bomb" is usually as unspoken  
as Trystero, but it's still the book's major subtext , this thread of  
revelation/apocalypse is inescapably connected to nuclear apocalypse.  
That theme gets bigger in Gravity's Rainbow. Pynchon's research  
[particularly at this moment of his career] may very well be sloppy &  
lazy, but grabbing the first revelations at hand must surely include  
some knowledge of the history of Yoyo/Rockeydyne over in San Narcisco/ 
Fernando, seeing as his previous "Straight" gig was writing about  
workplace safety for Boeing. Surely OBA was aware of Rocketdyne's  
nuclear accidents in the late 50's, early 60's. Even more surely,  
Pynchon was aware of the greater catastrophic potential of the  
products and services of Rocketdyne/Boeing.