Pynchon's reply

[Robin Landseadel]

"Keep it bouncing. . ."

On May 20, 2009, at 7:15 AM, David Morris wrote:

> On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 8:36 AM, Joe Allonby <joeallonby at gmail.com>  
> wrote:
>> Over-analysis seems to be the hobby of most people on this list -  
>> myself included.
>
> For some people it's a profession.

Well, yeah? You mean like Pynchon Notes and other sites for analysis  
of Pynchon? Like the reason we're here? Call it over-analysis if you  
like.

So why are you posting here if you think what we're doing is useless?

> I've only read COL49 once, many years ago.  As I remember it, a
> central theme, also central to GR, has to do with seeing patterns in
> the universe and the question whether these are inherent or projected
> or both.  I remember not liking this book very much, thinking this
> conspiracy quest wore a little thin by the end.
>
> David Morris

I've read the book obsessively for thirty years now—more times than  
the number in the title. I have my reasons, they have everything to do  
with the times and the places of the novel. And so it goes.

While 'seeing patterns' and projecting worlds are major themes in  
CoL49, those themes are subordinate to the theme of losing the sense  
of self, of losing one's humanity.

On May 20, 2009, at 6:36 AM, Joe Allonby wrote:

> How much of this is actually in the text?

Good question.

Answer: it's there alright, like that smog that's not supposed to be  
in the San Francisco/Bay Area.

One of the biggest points of CoL49 is just how much Oedipa overlooked  
while ensconced in her tower in Kinneret in the Pines. The local  
details are a big part of the tapestry: the presence of Yoyo/ 
Rocketdyne is a clear indicator of the ongoing cold war and the price  
we [the U.S.] paid in that war, the Peter Penguid Society points to  
"Russo-American relations during the American Civil War," that "OSS"/ 
Bone thing is replicated in GR [Pynchon is deep into word games,  
didn't you notice?], the Thurn and Taxis material is there [though the  
Dude is overextending himself a bit by throwing the Rothschilds in his  
mix.—they may be there, but they're not named.] "Certain American  
corporations and banks were instrumental in preparing Germany for  
war," is folded into the mix, though that's covered more in GR than  
here. That particular thread has a lot to do with Pynchon & Co.,  
though the author is careful not to go into too much detail on that  
particular point. I detect Pynchon & Company in CoL49, GR and AtD in  
particular. It's all part of the book's "plot', but even more to the  
point is just how isolated Oedipa's tower in Kinneret in the Pines is  
from the sights you can see late at night from an AC transit bus  
tooling about in San Francisco. It is easy for anyone reading the  
Crying of Lot 49 to lose track of the human story, much as Oedipa  
loses track of the human element while she pursues these puzzles of  
symbology. Then again, that loss of our collective sense of humanity  
was a central concern of Young Pynchon.

> Near as I can tell, COL49 is about a woman at a turning point in her  
> life
> (impending breakup, death of influential friend/lover/mentor)
> stumbling upon an ancient postal fraud conspiracy that may have been
> right under her nose all the time. Or she may be losing her mind. Or
> both.

The ancient postal fraud/conspiracy may be one last evil design/plot  
of Pierce Invararity, something designed to make Oedipa go nuts. But I  
think it's much more to the point that in this journey Oedipa becomes  
aware of those who are drawing away from "The Union", or more exactly:  
those who never got a chance to be part of "The Union" in the first  
place. The "Isolation" of Oedipa in her tower has much more to do with  
the vast social differences between her and those she encounters in  
her quest than the political particulars of that quest, though the  
author takes pains to note the political particulars.

> Nothing will ever be the same regardless of what actually takes
> place at that auction. Details of time and place establish the setting
> and reinforce the feelings of dread and confusion. Anything beyond
> that is speculation.

Not quite. Time and place and setting is very important: we are on the  
cusp of the "Acid Revolution", LSD is not just "set & setting" for the  
book, Acid is central to the book, central to the madness that  
encroaches upon Oedipa.

> Over-analysis seems to be the hobby of most
> people on this list - myself included. I'll stand back and take my
> lumps now.

One lump or two? And would you like cream with that?

>
> On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 10:57 AM, Robin Landseadel
> <robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:
>> On May 19, 2009, at 7:41 AM, Heikki Raudaskoski wrote:
>>
>>> Would just like to check if the article is as monoreductive as I
>>> recall; as E.D. Hirschian as I recall.
>>
>> I think not:
>>
>>       So The Crying of Lot 49 is about Oedipa, her life, her loves,  
>> her
>>       mental states, and her curious quest to decipher the estate of
>>       Pierce Inverarity. And, by allusion, it is also Pynchon's
>>       meditation on the state of American affairs in the mid-sixties,
>>       about Russo-American relations during the American Civil War,
>>       about the fate of Jan De Witt during the founding of the Dutch
>>       Republic. It is about the the acrimonious U.S. elections of  
>> 1940
>>       and 1944, and about the OSS in Italy during the Second World
>>       War. It is about Thurn and Taxis and its relation with the
>>       Rothschild, and about the relations of the Rothschilds and the
>>       Morgans. It is about how certain American corporations and
>>       banks were instrumental in preparing Germany for war, and (by
>>       implication) about how those same corporations and banks
>>       were instrumental in driving Pynchon & Co. into receivership.  
>> It
>>       is about how McCarthyism hounded lots of Yankees and Jews
>>       out of government, about how Germany rebounded from the
>>       Second World War to become one of the world's richest nations,
>>       about how so many former Nazi officials went on to rank among
>>       the world's elite. It is about how the CIA got to be  
>> superordinate
>>       to the presidency in American realpolitik. It is about how mid-
>>       sixties America resembled Nazi Germany, the Dutch republic
>>       and the Roman empire at their worst, about the fear that
>>       cessation of political and intellectual exchange would cause a
>>       new decline of the West. And all these meditations were
>>       triggered by the assassination of President Kennedy.
>>       Charles Hollander: Pynchon, JFK and the CIA: Magic Eye
>>       Views of The Crying of Lot 49
>>       Pynchon Notes 40-41, spring-fall 1997, pp. 61-106
>>
>> One thing that's going on here is the Dude's [fairly reasonable]  
>> attempt to
>> present GR and CoL49 as two works that are of a piece. There are  
>> plenty of
>> connections between the two novels.
>>