Pynchon and the Era

[Dave Monroe]

Pynchon and the Era
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Thomas Pynchon was born in 1937. He has written other books, his most
famous of which being V. He attended Cornell University and even went
to lectures by famous Lolita author Vladimir Nabokov. This would go on
to influence some of his fiction.

To understand this book you have to understand that it was based on
the culture of the sixties and seventies. This culture was heavily
influenced by drugs, music and emerging status of Hollywood. Pynchon
made The Crying of Lot 49 to be a satire on the current culture he was
experiencing. The drugs were directly addressed by the book. Oedipa's
doctor recommends that she take LSD to ease her depression a fact
balked upon by the main character. This is somewhat making fun of the
doctors who thought this remedy would help but lost their patients
even more to it. Music was another big subject of satire in this book.
He makes comments about the music and famous musical figures of the
time by introducing us to the "Paranoids" a band eerily similar to the
Beatles. They are pot smoking, lazy, girl crazed, members of a popular
band. I think by this he was trying to put a funny play on the Beatles
but also showing how obsessed people became with people who were
easily relate able to us. He also addresses the "Hollywood Culture"
and it's status at the time. The place in California that they live is
called "San Narcisso" a play on the word narcissist or someone who is
obsessed with themselves. Here he shows us his view on some of the
people of that time and gives the impression that they were only into
themselves, and did not care for the well being of other people. These
three topics give a greater meaning to his novel, when you see he was
trying to put a humorous criticism of the 60s 70s culture.

Pynchon and the Era
undefined undefined

Thomas Pynchon was born in 1937. He has written other books, his most
famous of which being V. He attended Cornell University and even went
to lectures by famous Lolita author Vladimir Nabokov. This would go on
to influence some of his fiction.

To understand this book you have to understand that it was based on
the culture of the sixties and seventies. This culture was heavily
influenced by drugs, music and emerging status of Hollywood. Pynchon
made The Crying of Lot 49 to be a satire on the current culture he was
experiencing. The drugs were directly addressed by the book. Oedipa's
doctor recommends that she take LSD to ease her depression a fact
balked upon by the main character. This is somewhat making fun of the
doctors who thought this remedy would help but lost their patients
even more to it. Music was another big subject of satire in this book.
He makes comments about the music and famous musical figures of the
time by introducing us to the "Paranoids" a band eerily similar to the
Beatles. They are pot smoking, lazy, girl crazed, members of a popular
band. I think by this he was trying to put a funny play on the Beatles
but also showing how obsessed people became with people who were
easily relate able to us. He also addresses the "Hollywood Culture"
and it's status at the time. The place in California that they live is
called "San Narcisso" a play on the word narcissist or someone who is
obsessed with themselves. Here he shows us his view on some of the
people of that time and gives the impression that they were only into
themselves, and did not care for the well being of other people. These
three topics give a greater meaning to his novel, when you see he was
trying to put a humorous criticism of the 60s 70s culture.