COL 49 2024 group read MPIN-AT

[Mark Kohut]

This line was about Tracy’s words on America. 
Sent from my iPad

> On Aug 9, 2024, at 3:17 AM, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On Thu, Aug 8, 2024 at 5:21 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I do not think that is the real realization she comes to....and I'll take
>> Pynchon's words and vision on America
>> any day over and over over yours....
>> 
> 
> Well, of course! Mine’s non-authoritative, and idiosyncratic. I’m not
> wedded to it myself.
> 
> There’s not a lot from the author about the book:
> 
> “The next story I wrote was “The Crying of Lot 49,” which was marketed as a
> “novel,” and in which I seem to have forgotten most of what I thought I’d
> learned up till then.” (SL intro)
> 
> He doesn’t seem to give any pointers about what to look for.
> 
> 
> IJS:
> - She finds out more, bit by bit, about the stamps
> - she often feels on the verge of a revelation
> - She never actually has that realization - hence “asymptotic” as she keeps
> learning more
> - She goes to the auction to find out more about the source of all those
> stamps.
> 
> But we already know: the author made them up.
> 
> That’s the truest revelation she could come to, & it would make it clear to
> her that she’s in a fiction.
> 
> That’s kind of a short circuit, breaking the 4th wall from the outside as a
> reader. One is always aware in the background that a story is a story. But
> if in the course of examining things in the story, its fictive nature comes
> to the foreground, then you have the option to think about that.
> 
> Or not (-;
> --
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