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/lit/ - Literature

File: 36 KB, 311x475, crying of lot 49.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

7373832

Anonymous Fri Nov 20 18:49:19 2015 No.7373832 [Reply] [Original]

Just finished my first read through, interested in how /lit/ interpreted the novel

I saw it as an epistemological critique of language. Namely how our means of communication is entirely mired in the socio-political landscape du jours;how we can never really separate ourselves from this landscape and any attempts to do so result in alienation and confusion.

This was demonstrated literally in the war between Thurn and Taxis and Trystero, a political conflict that would decide who controlled the means of communication.

Keep in mind this is after a single read, didn't take notes or anything and is more just a general thesis I've gleaned from the text than any definitive interpretation.

Can anyone build on/refute my interpretation?
Anyone else care to share their respective interpretations?
Anyone else not realize that a novel where paranoia is a central theme prominently features a band named the Paranoids until they're explicitly referenced near the end?

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 18:52:37 2015 No.7373849 I never read it but i think its about bugles right, thats whats on the cover

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Anonymous Fri Nov 20 18:58:15 2015 No.7373872

Couldn't you have just said it's about communication errors? I don't mean to be anti-intellectual but man,

>an epistemological critique of language. Namely how our means of communication is entirely mired in the socio-political landscape du jours
yikes. I ain't your prof sonny

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:01:15 2015 No.7373889 >>7373872 Probably, but ironically enough if I'm not specific to the point of pretentiousness I fear I'll fall into the very trap the novel is trying to point out

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:01:25 2015 No.7373890 >>7373849 kek

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:03:27 2015 No.7373900 File: 202 KB, 580x387, bugle_claw.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7373849 I could see it And the Trystero is a personification of the all annihilating Bugle Claw

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:06:44 2015 No.7373914 >>7373889 How droll I thought it was about badgers, actually

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:11:20 2015 No.7373933 >>7373832 Isn't it about Taxis and Christopher Marlowe's bowel problems?

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:12:54 2015 No.7373940 File: 138 KB, 1004x916, 667.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] Why does everyone on /lit/ always overlook the anonymous inamorato aspect? Does badgering come into play when in love? Anyone? I'm ready for some deep cuts tn family.

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:13:42 2015 No.7373941 TORQUATO O R Q U A T O

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:14:40 2015 No.7373943 File: 72 KB, 540x960, 1446747886721.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7373941 But why?

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:17:03 2015 No.7373955 >du jours I think you mean "du jour" or "des jours"... pleb.

>>

Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:20:09 2015 No.7373967

>>7373832
Problems in communicating are featured prominently throughout the book I think. Oedipa does not get a lot of help from the people she asks about Trystero, and when she finally does know about the organisation she can't ask Driblette about the connection to the Courier's Tragedy because of his death.

Also it seems significant that Mucho works for a radio station (also essentially some kind of communication) and that he has problems with his boss reharding his show (I think? It's been a long time that I've read it).

In general Pynchon obviously does not focus on a single topic, entropy plays a big role (Maxwell's Demon) and, like you said, Paranoia and probably much more.

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:22:21 2015 No.7373971 please talk me out of getting a muted post horn tattoo

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:26:36 2015 No.7373986 >>7373971 Pinecone wrote it to pay for booze n puss.

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:27:29 2015 No.7373987 >>7373889 kek thats actually a pretty good post alright ill let your first one slide

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:27:47 2015 No.7373990 >>7373971 do it bitch

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:29:04 2015 No.7373995 File: 73 KB, 639x642, 1440628941642.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7373967 blowing-up-synecdoche/10

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:30:11 2015 No.7374002 >>7373971 It's lame as fuck You'll regret it after your undergrad years Anyone who appreciates it will probably be a pretentious non-reader asshole

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:30:53 2015 No.7374005 >>7374002 >non-reader o u :')

>>

Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:31:01 2015 No.7374006

>>7373967
This is why Pynchon is one of my favourite authors

He fits more into a single novel than most do in their entire careers

>>7373971
Maybe I'm just trapped in the same madness but that sounds like one of the few good ideas for a tattoo I've heard

>>7373986
Apparently looking back he thinks it's shit too

"...The Crying of Lot 49... in which I seem to have forgotten most of what I thought I'd learned up until then."

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:32:11 2015 No.7374012 File: 128 KB, 679x444, Capture.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7374006 >good ideas >tattoo :')

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:43:05 2015 No.7374056 File: 637 KB, 500x700, 789546214.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7373849 potshorns actually.

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Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:49:58 2015 No.7374088

>>7373832
I pretty much thought it was about paranoia, miscommunication, and like a da vinci code sort of novel satire. Not sure if the solution is Oedipa was completely out of her wits, or she really was sent on a goose chase for shits and giggles. Probably need to read it again.

>>

Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:53:38 2015 No.7374100

>>7374088
I'd like to think the point is that you're never really sure as to whether Oedipa is actually unearthing a conspiracy or if she's just paranoid;it makes the feelings of paranoia more real for the reader. The novel ends with her no closer to the truth, the auction will just string her further along the path with no end in sight. It's purposefully unsatisfying in order to carry its themes beyond the page and into the daily life of the reader.

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:54:41 2015 No.7374105 File: 111 KB, 800x670, Woman on Steps, 1965.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7374088 Solution? Wha?

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:55:30 2015 No.7374106 >OEDIPA MASS >Say it out loud >"Head up my ass"

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:56:16 2015 No.7374109 >>7374105 Like, you know what I meant. >>7374100 That makes sense, nice dubs.

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:56:44 2015 No.7374110 >>7374106 "Mike Fallopian cannot be a real character's name," - Wikipedia review for Lot 49

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:57:45 2015 No.7374116 File: 86 KB, 988x500, Imipolex G.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7374100 What are the chances all those experiences she had were planted? Let's not be fucking retarded, here.

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:59:01 2015 No.7374118 >>7374116 Isn't it implied that Inverarity had enough money to realistically pay off everyone involved?

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 19:59:46 2015 No.7374122 File: 100 KB, 500x201, C S.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7374106 eh-dih-puh-mahs...?

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Anonymous Fri Nov 20 20:01:56 2015 No.7374128
File: 437 KB, 400x465, 13.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>>7374118
Coincidence =/= able to 'pay off' pranksters.

9/11 was an inside job ZOMG

But seriously, let's get 2 the bottom of this. I honestly don't think that is likely. Inverarity is dead.

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 20:04:02 2015 No.7374133 >>7374122 ed ip-uhm ass ed ip muh ass head up my ass

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 20:08:33 2015 No.7374152 >>7374133 mass =/= maas mucho my ass?

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 20:20:57 2015 No.7374192 >>7374133 >Oedipa >pronounced Edipuh no

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 20:23:49 2015 No.7374201 >>7374192 OED IPA Oxford English Dictionary Imperial Pale Ale OED preserved to be shipped across seas yfw?

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 20:26:34 2015 No.7374206 >>7374192 It's a 'long E' but enough people pronounce it with a 'short E' for me to deduce what he meant. I'm a third party, by the way.

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Anonymous Fri Nov 20 20:29:44 2015 No.7374214

>>7374206
>third party

third par·ty

noun

1.

a loudmouth or idiot interrupting or talking over the two intelligent humans primarily involved in a situation, especially a dispute.

adjective

1.

of or relating to a disabled or homosexual interrupting the two primarily involved people in a situation.

"third-party asshole needs attention"

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 20:37:46 2015 No.7374227 >>7374214 I'm one of the two previously involved presumable humans and am not intelligent.

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 20:50:43 2015 No.7374262 File: 81 KB, 396x351, 1382896373040.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>7374227 So >>7374206 wasn't a third party.... leave it to a third party to call himself that.... or HERself....

>>	Anonymous Fri Nov 20 21:27:29 2015 No.7374351 >>7373872 >>7373955 yeah this had me laffin

>>	Anonymous Sat Nov 21 01:57:17 2015 No.7375068 >>7373832 The answer is Torquato Tasso

>>	Anonymous Sat Nov 21 03:24:46 2015 No.7375175 >>7373832 Konrad?

>>	Anonymous Sat Nov 21 03:34:31 2015 No.7375184 >>7373832 pretty sure that after my first read thru I had enough evidence to prove that pynchon was a closet nazi

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Anonymous Sat Nov 21 09:23:19 2015 No.7375676

I think it was about the general problem of interpretation, and how to derive meaning (or really, anything) from chaos. The main image in the novel is that of Oedipa imposing a structure on the world in an attempt to make it comprehensible (see Remedios Varo, "Shall I project a world?", "They're taking away all my men", Maxwell's Demon, paranoia).
People here talk a lot about Torquato Tasso because of that remarkable absolutely-not-Pynchon poster from back when. Yet, nobody talks about Hans-Georg Gadamer, how his vision of the hermeneutic circle and the process of interpretation (which he conceptualizes as the concecutive "projection" of foremeanings and forestructures upon that which is being read/interpreted) could lead to a not so pessimistic reading of the novel, one in which Oedipa indeed fails to solve any of the misteries, but has nevertheless achieved some kind of illumination (as foreboded in her ecstasy of San Narciso and her staging of Michelangelo's Piety).