/lit/ - Literature

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Anonymous Fri May 29 23:50:03 2015 No.6611297 [Reply] [Original]

K, so here it is:

First off, Oedipa is called Oedipa because her tragedy (would) have been the same as that of Oedipus Rex: having sex with one’s mother. Oedipa was birthed by the story, and so reaching (narrative) climax within that story would have been just as tragic as it was for Oedipus.

Secondly, the book attempts to strip narrative down to its most base elements, and then fail. Narratives (read: stories) are descriptions of events, or, more specifically, a single event: the climax. The event in this novel is the title. The book attempts to describe that event and that event only, and the rest of the novel is simply exposition. The fact that novel ENDS just before the event occurs, however, is the failure. It might be that Oedipa decided to end the novel by refusing to further communicate to the audience, thereby avoiding the tragedy mentioned above. OR the novel was ended in order to symbolize the overall sense of miscommunication and detachment present all through. Which brings me to:

Third,and finally, the book’s message is the miscommunication of messages. The fact that a single, simple event (the auction of a postage stamp collection) becomes entangled with complicated love affairs, esoteric historical references, and seemingly other seemingly random events causes mass confusion, reflected in Oedipa who cannot understand the events transpiring around her or the way other characters are behaving. She realizes that the narrative has been lost, and this frustrates her nearly to the point of insanity, and, finally, overall detachment. This is why the overarching symbol of the novel is a muted post horn: the horn is a device used to communicate and announce coming information (letters). If the post horn is muted, its purpose is defeated. One is left to gather information themselves. This image is the essence of miscommunication.

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