CoL49 - Group Read End of Book

[Mark Kohut]

She is pregnant with what a gynecologist cannot detect.....What?

On Sun, Aug 4, 2024 at 2:42 PM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

>
> > At one point in her walk along the RR tracks, Oedipa discusses the
> "excluded middle" where she knows "bad shit happens". How does this relate
> to David's premise that the book is about "What is Reality?”?
> RR tracks-  opposition : The trains on this track can only go north.
> Negation the trains on this track do not only go  north, they go south
> excluded middle : the trains go both ways.  Whatever.
> I would say that all Pynchon writing concerns the question of what is
> real, and sometimes with the question “What is reality?”.  He wants to
> think about those questions and seems to want his readers to do so. In the
> latter question he gives us a picture of of human reality and
> civilizational reality in which there is much deception, theft,
> exploitation, war and lust  operating as key organizing principles of the
> modern world. He seems to point to routes of escape or awakening from that
> deceptiveness and violence also. Picking heroes gets tricky as all humans
> seem subject to the same forces and tend to pick their own favorite routes.
> My own feeling is that most P characters who pursue this question end up
> closer to knowing more about reality in the end, but rarely very comforted
> or comfortable apart from maybe the Chums of Chance.
>    My problem with David’s question is what does he mean by it?  What is
> either Python or  David Morris saying is reality, and is it to do with the
> realities Pynchon turns  into his multilayered stories and CoL49?
>
> > Why does Oedipa consider Pierce's empire and the will as America? Why
> does this make her feel like an alien?
> "...what it was the Tristero were to have inherited; as perhaps Oedipa one
> day might have. What was left to inherit? That America coded in
> Inverarity’s testament, whose was that? T Pynchon
>
> She has seen, felt and absorbed deeply the situation of the alienated, she
> can see that the people called "great Americans" have a dark and self
> serving legacy. She sees that the comfortable middle shrink from the
> dangers of asking the wrong questions. In some sense she has within her
> both ends and the middle of America but after setting up for a pregnancy
> exam she now knows that she is “unfurrowed", is virgin to all the princes
> and yet  is part of the mystery of life woven from the looms and wombs of
> motherhood, that tears have filled and cleansed her eyes to look out for
> the real creative forces in her world.  Grace looked into her as no other
> has, seeing the tears behind the beauty.
>
> > Why does the IA say that he is the one who's time is up?
>
> Opposition proposition: it was not too late ? How long would it take to
> say I fooled you, or I was paid to mislead you. The line is kind of a
> classic mystery trope meaning I’m done for. It’s hard to imagine a better
> way of interpreting it other than he had deceived her on somebody elses
> behalf.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Aug 4, 2024, at 7:09 AM, J K Van Nort via Pynchon-l <
> pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
> >
> > We've come to the last section of the book and the group read. Thanks to
> everyone who participated.
> >
> > Summary:
> > Oedipa wonders if she is pregnant but after making an appointment to get
> tested as Grace Bortz, she skips the appointment. Ghengis Cohen brings her
> materials that include an article plausibly explaining how the Trystero
> left the European continent and began to set up shop in the U.S. Several
> examples of Trystero subtle stamp alterations are mentioned. Bortz thinks
> that the article is possible, considering the way the USPS had monopolized
> by lower prices the postal business. He tells her to find out its
> legitimacy. She continues to have toothaches and strange dreams. Cohen
> calls to say that Pierce's stamp collection will be auctioned off, and the
> Trystero stamps will be part of Lot 49. he says a mystery book bidder had
> signed up for the auction and asked to see Lot 49. They were denied because
> they refused to identify themselves. Cohen believes that this is Trystero,
> attempting to reclaim the stamps. Oedipa gets drunk on bourbon and drives
> through the night without headlights. She fin
> > ally comes to a stop, and uses a payphone to call the Greek Way, asking
> for the IA. He finally comes to the phone but leaves her with a cryptic
> "it's too late". While walking along a RR track, Oed considers that Pierce
> has actually died, that his efforts to use the will to extend his life or
> harass her have failed, and he is gone. She goes over the whole period
> since she first began to unravel Pierce's will and legacy. She compares it
> to America and thinks that if that is America, that she will feel like an
> alien. The next day she calls the firm that is representing the mystery
> bidder who informs her that the buyer will now be attending the auction.
> She meets Cohen there, who wants to try to buy some Mozambique triangles.
> He notes that a premier auctioneer will be crying the lots. He explains
> that crying of lots is how auctioneers describe the process of auctioning.
> She goes into the auction room, wondering how she'll respond if she sees
> the Trystero representative, hears the doors
> > locked and watches as the auctioneer prepares to cry the auction.
> >
> > Questions
> > At one point in her walk along the RR tracks, Oedipa discusses the
> "excluded middle" where she knows "bad shit happens". How does this relate
> to David's premise that the book is about "What is Reality?"?
> >
> > Why does Oedipa consider Pierce's empire and the will as America? Why
> does this make her feel like an alien?
> >
> > What has been revealed by Oedipa's efforts?
> >
> > Why does the IA say that he is the one who's time is up?
> >
> > In solidarity,
> > James
> >
> > Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >
>
>
>
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