COL 49 CH 5 Arrabal to Hilarius and arrival of cops

[Joseph Tracy]

Well there is always that entertaining quality in P’s novel’s and he clearly wants his work to entertain, but for individuals like myself the entertainment has always had something to do with how the satire is directed, because it seems to be directed at targets which not so many are willing to prod and while usually everyone in his books  makes a fool of themself in some way, the weirdest evil ( there is a fair amount of that) characterizes things that I have strong feelings about and if it is  part of state machinery will usually have a parallel in the opposing state. I find his humor to be unusual in that it keeps working. Like the big Lebowski or The Holy Grail, it’s good for more than one laugh.  I do tend to think that P’s intentions are very large and entertainment and humor are as much tools as goals. I like the word skive and never use it so had to look it up. Perfect. 
   I think PI’s most logical motive with O.M. as executrix is to say here is everything you could have had, with Metzger as insurance that she would be distracted and wouldn’t look in the wrong places. Of course she does. I see this motive with the deep state machinations toward the public, here is everything you get if you just don’t look in certain places.  

Thanks for a thoughtful and real response.  




> On Jul 16, 2024, at 2:44 AM, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Nice breakdown. Respectful response:
> 
> My theory of the novel is not to take it too seriously.
> 
> Primary goal of CoL49: to be a novel, in the  novelistic tradition. An
> entertainment.
> 
> Everything between the covers serves that end.
> 
> For me, it was entertaining earlier to speculate that the estate might be
> broke & try to prove it (came up pretty short but it was a learning
> experience.)
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jul 15, 2024 at 1:37 PM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net <mailto:brook7 at sover.net>> wrote:
> 
>> I guess I just don’t see how anyone could predict or stay ahead of her
>> enough to know what bus she would take or where she would sit on the bus.
>> Her pattern of movement was crazily erratic or arbitrary.
> 
> 
> Exactly when people are easiest to manipulate.
> 
> 
> Also what would be PI’s motive in all this?
> 
> 
> 
> The hypothetical Harlequinish novel that I was projecting would have Pierce
> intensely loving her, and putting her thru all this so she would go to the
> auction, where he would have his hand-picked new love interest for her
> declare himself and Oedipa find him acceptable.
> 
> I wouldn’t necessarily prefer, after reflection, such a plot, but I did
> like that episode of (Cumberbatch) Sherlock, where one watches as Watson
> enacts every single thing just as Sherlock had planned, unlikely as it
> seems - that’s part of the enjoyment.
> 
> I see this whole line of thought as the kind of paranoia that is desperate
>> and illogical and ascribes an impossible level of power and manipulative
>> skill to the presumed controller of events. Once a person sees any such
>> deception in a powerful person or organization it is hard not to wonder how
>> much of that is directed at you.  It seems rather to me that Pynchon is
>> carefully presenting a story where the protagonist is stirred to
>> investigate something that looks highly unlikely but is found to be so real
>> and troubling that she can barely cope, and looks for any possible
>> explanation.
>> 
> 
> Yes, but is that fun?
> 
> I agree that both the “broke PI” and the “lovelorn puppet master” aren’t
> very satisfying theories
> 
> But bouncing around, using those now proven-wrong deviations to get off the
> beaten path - because I’m not enchanted by the sort of grim conclusions we
> seem to be heading for - I like the idea that Oedipa uses the executrix gig
> to skive off from Wendell’s pointless drama and infidelities - then uses
> the Tristero as an excuse to skive off from boring estate duty -
> then skives off from diligent sleuthing - to a stamp auction where maybe
> Genghis (or maybe even Pierce himself, in rags or a sari & turban, behind a
> Bertie Wooster kind of glue-on beard, having faked his death) will show up
> & turn out to be a gratifyingly adept hair-climber.
> 
> Because I’m yes, earnestly reading and not rejecting other interpretations,
> but essentially I dip into a novel in the first place as a way to skive off
> from grimness, to receive both “sentens and solas” - and never stop looking
> for that.
> 
> There’s a tension between the desire to be responsive to the text as it is,
> and the desire to find the specific things I want to read about, which is
> enjoyable.
> 
> The many quite good comments here I’ve been reading are undoubtedly more
> responsive to the text than the ideas I’ve been floating!
> 
> But I keep wanting to read this as a fun book without completely ignoring
> its contents.
> 
> 
>> Also if we assume that PI did set all this up and also made sure that the
>> evidence of this large secret network  would be made to disappear early in
>> the disposition of the will, I would argue that this leads to something
>> very much resembling the course of events following the Kennedy killing and
>> the scope of the efforts to prevent contrary evidence and testimony to the
>> magic bullet riddled narrative of the Warren commission, including the high
>> likelihood the Dorothy Kilgallen was murdered and her files stole. Maybe a
>> plausible for-instance  type explanation of what PI could have been up to
>> and why he would have set up this elaborate and expensive illusion, would
>> give more credibility to this idea.
> 
> 
> Love; crazy love
> 
> I honestly can’t think of how that would work to explain the events of the
>> story. P does not have human villains without human motives. Is it really a
>> parable where PI is the Devil( Ala the world the flesh and the devil)? What
>> is his goal as a devil? I’m really trying to think this through with
>> everything on the table so far.
>> 
>> 
>> 
> I think - I hope - that positing PI as a devil is tongue-in-cheek, he’s
> just a rich dude with his flaws, nobody’s perfect
> 
> And although Oedipa’s anguish is real, her situation within the spectrum of
> human experience is enviable - she’s a modern embodiment of one of the
> Aristotelian ideas about having the characters be of high social status or
> something like that…she’s got internal class to move in many circles &
> think worthy thoughts even in her confusion while she keeps moving (and
> skiving)
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> --
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