Cof L49, Chapter 4, p. 81 hardcover

[Paul Mackin]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Kohut" <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2009 2:25 PM
Subject: Cof L49, Chapter 4, p. 81 hardcover


>
> More FYI (especially for new plisters): The pynchon wiki is the 
> indispensable first place to go for initial understandings
> of stuff in C of L49 (and P's others)...I do not allude to it much because 
> I assume we all know and use it
> and I try not to be unecessarily redundant. (I'm just necessarily 
> redundant 'cause I can't help it).
>
> P. 81 hc: "no more disquieting than "other revelations". They are now 
> "crowding in" exponentially, as Oedipa's
> adventures grow in number. Anti-entropically? The further she comes down 
> from the
> Kenneret tower structure--although the tower IS still everywhere---the 
> more revelations.
> ("these follow-ups [of The Courier's Tragedy] went 'a certain distance") 
> Now, as in
> "revelations all around her", the revelations are clearly beyond the 
> happenings around The Courier's Tragedy.
>
> Heikki wrote: "the enervated landscape of V. has also been
> replaced in COL49 by an electrified ambience of many possibilities."
>
> Riff: One of the early good reviewers of C of L49 wrote that it read like 
> an outtake of V. As early Heikki
> says, the possibilities, the revelations happening in C of L49, show it as 
> a new start for TRPs vision, not as
> an outtake from "V.". Yes???


The thing Crying had vis a vis V. is the hot topicality. Fear was in the 
air. Discovering hidden forces. Paranoia. Perfect for a popular magazine 
novella. Pynchon was already pretty well versed in paranoia working on GR so 
part of the "new start" was really the much bigger undertaking that just 
happened to be requiring a long time to finish.

It may be testimony to the Lot 49's topicality that when I first read it I 
liked it better than V. It's hard for me to believe today. I was young 
enough that I wanted to be up to date. V. was olden times.

But reading the first chapter of Crying now  I'm struck by how 50s it can 
sound.  Mucho's believing in things and not believing in other things is 
just the way you might have heard bookish college kids of the earlier era 
talk at their most ponderous. Pynchon's formative years come clearly 
through.

P







of what was happening to the country and a whiff of revolt
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