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A review by taicantfly
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I found this book confusing. At no point did I know roughly how much of it I "got", or if I even could "get" some singular thematic goal or authorial project. In my view, that means I felt as Oedipa did, confused by a web either constructed by Pynchon to mess with me (as constructed by Pierce to mess with her) or unrelated non-sequiturs to project a world onto, or some real and meaningful plot (as with the real and meaningful Trystero).
I adored the metaphor of entropy; the thermodynamic entropy, an increase resulting in the heat death of the universe, applying onto the United States' slip into cultural stasis, the suburban sprawl of the San Narcisos of the world blocking any possibility for meaningful self-actualisation. The informational entropy, an increase resulting in a tangled, complex and knowledge-rich network. To find this self-actualisation, slow the cultural decline, reverse the thermodynamic entropy, Oedipa acts as her own Maxwell's Demon, embarking on an informationally entropic quest (untangling Pierce's estate, which resembles the web of Trystero, which resembles her own mind) which may or may not be possible (Pynchon doesn't exactly posit whether or not Maxwell's Demon is a solvable paradox...) Our world is more and more rich in information and I think there's a lot more room to explore these themes, or to use this metaphor, which I'm interested in finding more allusions to.
The neo-noir "quest" was subverted really well here - at any point I thought I could predict the pacing, it threw me off, which I think was a weirdly nice feeling, and I still, on some shallower level, enjoyed her unravelling of the mystery the way you enjoy watching videos of slime on Instagram Reels, pleasantly surprised when it's interrupted because it makes you re-evaluate the medium.
I think I'd benefit from some further reading around the works relevant to this - Ulysses, Oedipus Rex, at one point I heard Heart of Darkness has some nice parallels between Kurtz and Pierce? One nice corollary of reading this was that it really encouraged me to read more, so I'm now working through a companion text to get some more contextual notes (and then an essay collection on it). And then Gravity's Rainbow soon ?! Hoping to get more out of Pynchon.
I adored the metaphor of entropy; the thermodynamic entropy, an increase resulting in the heat death of the universe, applying onto the United States' slip into cultural stasis, the suburban sprawl of the San Narcisos of the world blocking any possibility for meaningful self-actualisation. The informational entropy, an increase resulting in a tangled, complex and knowledge-rich network. To find this self-actualisation, slow the cultural decline, reverse the thermodynamic entropy, Oedipa acts as her own Maxwell's Demon, embarking on an informationally entropic quest (untangling Pierce's estate, which resembles the web of Trystero, which resembles her own mind) which may or may not be possible (Pynchon doesn't exactly posit whether or not Maxwell's Demon is a solvable paradox...) Our world is more and more rich in information and I think there's a lot more room to explore these themes, or to use this metaphor, which I'm interested in finding more allusions to.
The neo-noir "quest" was subverted really well here - at any point I thought I could predict the pacing, it threw me off, which I think was a weirdly nice feeling, and I still, on some shallower level, enjoyed her unravelling of the mystery the way you enjoy watching videos of slime on Instagram Reels, pleasantly surprised when it's interrupted because it makes you re-evaluate the medium.
I think I'd benefit from some further reading around the works relevant to this - Ulysses, Oedipus Rex, at one point I heard Heart of Darkness has some nice parallels between Kurtz and Pierce? One nice corollary of reading this was that it really encouraged me to read more, so I'm now working through a companion text to get some more contextual notes (and then an essay collection on it). And then Gravity's Rainbow soon ?! Hoping to get more out of Pynchon.