The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I just read this, and man, what a trip. I liked it. Reminded me a lot of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and Joseph Heller's Catch 22 (the only novels I've read by either author; a shame, I know); not so much in content, but humor and writing style. After I read it, I checked out the analysis on Sparknotes to see what I all missed, and was pleasantly surprised I pretty much "understood" the novel, even though I didn't realize it at the time--that one of the major motifs of the novel is the unreliability of what should be reliable (communication) and the classic "is it real" idea found in so many post-modern works. The ending also seemed fitting.

I'd love to hear some other thoughts on this book.

[Brad Coelho]

Interesting comparators in Catch & Slaughterhouse…curious as to what brought those novels to mind when reading Lot 49?

I enjoyed it as well. It is certainly a less daunting introduction to Pynchon than most of his other elephantine works & it’s a great introduction into his dry, yet zany brand of humor. I know some find his caricature-like names & acronyms a bit tiresome, but I like how they accomplish: whimsy, laughter & are thought provoking. You can’t help but begin to search for symbolism & cues in them, much like Oedipa on her journey to uncover the rhyme & reason in her mock-detective odyssey.

While it is a bit labyrinthine, I thought that was the point. Curiosity didn’t kill the cat, but the access to more information just made the arbitrary randomness seem all the more maddening. With Pynchon’s quantitative & scientific sensibilities, I grasped the conceit that attempting to ascertain meaning or significance to the innumerable patterns of life’s mysteries can be a beguiling trek, yet renders you more withdrawn, potentially morose & confused. With all the red herrings flying about you can’t help but wonder why Oedipa was more captivated by Tristero than she was the murder mystery of all those human bones…

The postal rivalry was intriguing to me from a rebellious standpoint, anti-governmental concept & from a raw communication mechanism. I think that these are all over-riding themes in the novel & his devices (the play, historical artifacts, the stamps) made the mystery richer.

I was most taken by his commentary towards 'the journey' of finding meaning, flesh, substance to the absurdity & disorganized hodge-podge of random life. Is it all just a W.A.S.T.E. or is it worthwhile?

I’d imagine applying scientific method to comprehension of the cosmos is even more frustrating than the more blissfully diluted vision I have of embracing its mystique…the more you know, the more you understand how little you know.