COL 49 Group Read.

[Mark Kohut]

Dr. Hilarious is a joke. Pynchon's in-one's-face naming.
Calling up Oedipa, full of fear and anxiety, at 3 AM?...
Turns the 'call anytime' ethics of real doctors inside out.
One can think of the political challenge in real life deabtes: How will you
handle
that 3 AM call about a major world crisis?

Oedipa is sensible enough not to trust him and says so. I suggest this, by
his name
and actions, P is showing us suburban majority America's feelings about
headshrinkers
then. (the guy who wrote the L49 Companion says Hilarious shows the
ubiquity of such
Head docs, I suggest TRP might have been a little prescient but that what
it really shows is
the lack of belief---so to use a Lot 49 notion--in them, their efficacy
then---and in general, maybe.)

Here's a great psychotherapy joke: "I'm having an hallucination now". says
Oedipa...."don't describe it" says the doc...
what a real shrink wants he refuses.....