CoL49 Group Reading chapter 3, pg 31, 32

[J K Van Nort]

Michael asks:-  sympathetic description of her husband’s infidelity. Like, extremely
sympathetic

“It kept her from asking him any more questions. Like all their inabilities
to communicate, this too had a virtuous motive”

i) other inabilities to communicate:
   Letting him preemptively complain before telling about her day (patience
is a virtue)
   Not understanding his car lot angst but consoling anyway (kindness is a
virtue)
   Are there more?The communication between Oed and the men in her life points to being a vessel for the men to divulge themselves into. She is reception, and they can't/won't hear her. Her virtue for the men is her ability to listen while they complain, mansplain, etc. This leads to her heightened 'sensitivity' to new revelations and communications. This may also be part of the 'logic' of beginning with Metzger. Throughout chapter 2, Oed reveals heightened sensations, Metzger's warm thigh touching, her increasing lust for him, her awakening to 'getting laid', her breast touching his nose. Then she is also sensitized to revelation, printed circuit for real estate development. Again the tower of Babel comes up as part of this inability to communicate. She fits the role of the sympathetic housewife as vessel for her man's desires, complaints, jeremiads, etc.In solidarity,James

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On Saturday, May 25, 2024, 09:47, J K Van Nort <jkvannort at yahoo.com> wrote:

Michael posed:



“Things then did not delay in turning curious”


A) twice again, the word “revelation”


B) the narrator floats the idea that The Tristero is a system of thought which may supplant the idea of Rapunzel’s Tower for Oedipa.



In the Tarot deck, the Tower is card XVI, preceded by the Devil. It is associated with sudden, disruptive revelation and catastrophe as well as higher learning/knowledge. The card has the tower often topped with a crown, which symbolizes “materialistic thought being bought cheap” according to the wikipedia entry.


I also think of the tower of Babel and the efforts to reach the heavens/find God/achieve higher knowledge being destroyed by confusion and loss of communication.


If Tristero replaces the Tower, then it is a form of communication that may be lost or meaningless (Fallopians letter) despite attempting to achieve higher knowledge. 


The Tower card also represents escape and liberation (Rapunzel).




Does this also hint at her relationship with Metzger, bought cheap?




In solidarity,




James


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    On Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 03:15:01 AM EDT, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 “Things then did not delay in turning curious”

A) twice again, the word “revelation”

B) the narrator floats the idea that The Tristero is a system of thought
which may supplant the idea of Rapunzel’s Tower for Oedipa.

Why is the language so conditional?

C) and tells us that she will come to be haunted by the way things fit
together - logically

i) Does the word “haunted” have a negative connotation which suggests that
The Tristero won’t be any more satisfying a myth to live within than
Rapunzel?

ii) is there really anything at all logical about how getting jiggy with
Metzger would start a voyage of discovery? If so, what?

D) Pierce peering at his stamps, an interest she never shared - “little
colored windows into deep vistas of space and time”

i) if she at this point describes stamps as “his substitute often for her”
and “ex-rivals, cheated as she by death” then can we re-cast her words to
Wendell (“It was over. Before he put my name on it.”) as leading up to,
“but now I’m feeling it again?”


-  sympathetic description of her husband’s infidelity. Like, extremely
sympathetic

“It kept her from asking him any more questions. Like all their inabilities
to communicate, this too had a virtuous motive”

i) other inabilities to communicate:
  Letting him preemptively complain before telling about her day (patience
is a virtue)
  Not understanding his car lot angst but consoling anyway (kindness is a
virtue)
  Are there more?
--
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