The Crying of Lot 49 Group Read 2024

[Michael Bailey]

“Either Trystero did exist, in its own right, or it was being presumed,
perhaps fantasied by Oedipa, so hung up on and interpenetrated with the
dead man’s estate. Here in San Francisco, away from all tangible assets of
that estate, there might still be a chance of getting the whole thing to go
away and disintegrate quietly. She had only to drift tonight, at random,
and watch nothing happen, to be convinced it was purely nervous, a little
something for her shrink to fix.”


She’s sort of “laying down a fleece before the Lord”

Leaving it up to chance as to what she will see -

She thinks if it is a Pierce plot, SF is far enough from his core holdings
that she will see none of the Tristero/WASTE insignia

- However, like Gideon when the fleece got wet, events seem to show that
Tristero/WASTE does have an existence of its own

——- but it could also mean that Pierce’s estate was more capable than she
thought - that was a problem with her experiment’s design: the results
weren’t clearly interpretable (Gideon’s design was better)




On Sat, Aug 3, 2024 at 6:51 PM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> 2nd try
>
> I simply could not recall what David is describing and so I looked for it
> and the only thing I found, which apparently is the correct reference, does
> not say the same thing to me at all. I doubt most readers would derive the
> same meaning as David offers. So I thought maybe it was a different passage.
>
> > On Aug 3, 2024, at 12:06 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I can do it in four words....(and why is the question framed this way
> anyway?)
> >
> >  "only to drift tonight,"
> >
> > On Sat, Aug 3, 2024 at 11:52 AM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net <mailto:
> brook7 at sover.net>> wrote:
> >> Could you give 3 words of a sentence? I cannot find anything very like
> this. The closest I found was below, which does not have the same
> implications. Definitely not the 'no resistance against any answer'.
> >>
> >>         "Here in San Francisco, away from all tangible assets of that
> estate, there might still be a chance of getting
> >>         the whole thing to go away and disintegrate quietly. She had
> only to drift tonight, at random, and watch nothing happen,
> >>         to be convinced it was purely nervous, a little something for
> her shrink to fix."
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> > On Aug 2, 2024, at 12:53 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com
> <mailto:fqmorris at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > I just reread the section starting around page 109, in which OED
> >> > consciously throws herself to the winds of fate, vowing to offer NO
> >> > RESISTANCE against any Answer, as revealed in her observations of
> life as
> >> > she floats Through the night. SHE HAS BECOME THE LITTLE BLACK BALL ON
> A
> >> > SPINNING ROULETTE WHEEL.
> >> >
> >> > The first answer to her question reveals Mostly her mind to US THE
> READER.
> >> > We see how she experiences events, and processes her “free”
> experiences,
> >> > now that she’s decided to be ruled by an invisible force.
> >> >
> >> > David Morris
> >> >
> >> > On Thu, Aug 1, 2024 at 6:25 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com
> <mailto:mark.kohut at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> page 106...Harper Perennial edition.
> >> >>
> >> >> ....."into the great empty glare of the Oakland
> afternoon".......along
> >> >> streets
> >> >> she never knew, across arterials that even with the afternoon's lull
> nearly
> >> >> murdered
> >> >> her....up long hillsides jammed solid with tow-or-three-bedroom
> houses:....
> >> >>
> >> >> Oedipa follows the Trystero postman through the land where the
> preterite
> >> >> live....
> >> >> Pynchon connects the Trystero to them, those who do not communicate
> via the
> >> >> USPS, the overt national communication system....
> >> >>
> >> >> The Trystero is real; it is in touch with the real. This is part of
> what
> >> >> Morris means
> >> >> in his perspective on What is Real in this novel, I want to
> say....(He
> >> >> means more than this, but this too,
> >> >> right? )
> >> >> --
> >> >> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >> >>
> >> > --
> >> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>