The Postmodern Self in Thomas Pynchon's the Crying of Lot 49
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AKADEMIN FÖR UTBILDNING OCH EKONOMI Avdelningen för humaniora The Postmodern self in Thomas Pynchon's the Crying of Lot 49 Dismantling the unified self by a combination of postmodern philosophy and close reading Andreas Signell 2015-16 Uppsats, Grundnivå (Studentarbete övrigt) 15 hp Engelska med ämnesdidaktisk inriktning (61-90) Ämneslärarprogrammet med inriktning mot arbete i gymnasieskolan 0030 Uppsats Handledare: Iulian Cananau, PhD Examinator: Marko Modiano, docent Abstract This essay is about identity and the self in Thomas Pynchon's critically acclaimed masterpiece The Crying of Lot 49. Through a combination of postmodern philosophy and close reading, it examines instances of postmodernist representations of identity in the novel. The essay argues that Pynchon is dismantling the idea of a unified self and instead argues for and presents a postmodern take on identity in its place. Questions asked by the essay are: in what ways does Pynchon criticize the idea of a unified self? What alternatives to this notion does Pynchon present? The essay is split into six chapters, an introductory section followed by a background on Thomas Pynchon and the novel. This is followed by an in-depth look into postmodernism, and Ludwig Wittgenstein's importance for it, as well as the basic concepts of his philosophy. This is followed by the main analysis in which a myriad of segments and quotations from the novel are looked at. Lastly, this is followed by a summarizing conclusion. The essay assumes a postmodernist approach of not being a definitive answer; rather it is one voice among many in the community of Pynchon interpreters. The conclusion shows that the examples given in the analysis present a range of answers as to how Pynchon dismantles the self, and what alternatives he presents in its wake. Pynchon explores the Cartesian ego, Lacanian other, Freudian ego and postmodernist alternatives in the novel, and presents in postmodern fashion, a multitude of answers as to how he dismantles the idea of a unified self in the novel. Keywords: Pynchon, self, identity, postmodernism, Wittgenstein Table of Content 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 2. Method and Materials ..................................................................................... 5 3. Background ...................................................................................................... 6 3.1 Thomas Pynchon ............................................................................................................ 6 3.2 The Crying of Lot 49 ....................................................................................................... 8 4. Postmodernism ................................................................................................ 9 4.1 Ludwig Wittgenstein and Postmodernism ................................................................. 12 5. Analysis ........................................................................................................... 13 6. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 27 Works Cited ....................................................................................................... 30 1 1. Introduction Thomas Pynchon is both a critically acclaimed writer and a divisive author at the same time. He stands as one of the foremost figures of postmodernism in literature and many critics hail him as the quintessential postmodern author. His novels have received such acclaim as redefining postmodernism, and, subsequently, many are a major part of the postmodern canon of literature. Yet his novels have been criticized for being crass and obscene, over convoluted and a mockery of high culture. It is this blend of styles that truly exemplifies Pynchon; he explores everything from low to high culture and produces a jumble of the two. Pynchon's work is divisive as it requires the reader’s full attention. His superfluous style of writing is bound to confuse some readers, and the immense scale and complexity of his work spans everything from "simple" detective stories to metahistorical retellings featuring over 400 characters in the same book and multiple narrators each with their own unique style. An apt comparison to make as to both how complex and nuanced Pynchon's work is to imagine an anthill sprawling deep underground with thousands of elaborate passageways to thousands of different events, organizations and characters. This is in many ways what reading a Pynchon novel is like; once the readers thinks and can guess what is coming, Pynchon goes off on a completely different tangent and leaves the reader dazed and confused. In some sense then, this is the main reason why his novels are so divisive; either one gets frustrated at Pynchon’s stubbornness to provide no answers and further convolute his plots, or one goes along for the ride and metaphorically follows the white rabbit down the hole into Wonderland. At the end of his novels, what began as a rather simple story along a straight path has evolved into a labyrinth of endless hallways. This is why, when analyzing and interpreting Pynchon, one can go almost anywhere with his writing since it is so immense in its scope. Analysts and critics have interpreted Pynchon in almost every possible way, from Marxist analyses to new historicist readings, and this has given rise to a growing community of Pynchon interpreters. Since the author is unwilling to share answers due to his reclusive nature, critics and analysts are left wondering as to what may or may not be the true intent of Pynchon. Therefore, the best an analysis can hope for is to metaphorically not make it out of the labyrinthine maze of the novel, but rather become another dead end in the ever-growing scope that is Pynchon's writing. This essay then becomes another thread to pick up on and unravel, in hope of reaching some answers, but not definitive ones, as the postmodern nature of Pynchon's work shies away from the grand narratives of the past and seeks refuge in the little narratives, providing not the answers, but an answer. Friedrich Nietzsche, whose philosophy stands as a 2 precursor to postmodernism, said in his masterpiece Thus Spake Zarathustra that "This- is now my way,- where is yours?' Thus did I answer those who asked me 'the way.' For the way- it does not exist!" (152). The phrase is now often simplified as "You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist". This is the same mentality one must assume when analyzing Pynchon directly. Similarly, Brian McHale advises critics: "[...] to approach Pynchon head-on (or as nearly head-on as the special difficulties of his texts permit), and then one has some chance of finally reaching the hilltop, from where it is possible to survey the entire countryside." (Postmodernist Fiction 10) The notion of the unified self that this essay uses is a common notion in philosophy of the self, but requires some explanation. The unified self is to some degree an essentialist idea, that there is some entity or function that constitutes the self as a unified being in and of itself, i.e. it is a substance, whether it be graspable (such as the body or brain) or ungraspable (such as the soul or mind). Thus, the belief in a unified self is the belief that there exists some entity in each person that constitutes their individual self. Neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris has criticized the idea of a unified self in his book Waking Up: As a matter of neurology, the sense of having a persistent and unified self must be an illusion, because it is built upon processes that, by their very nature as processes, are transitory and multifarious. There is no region of the brain that can be the seat of a soul. Everything that makes us human— our emotional lives, capacity for language, the impulses that give rise to complex behavior, and our ability to restrain other impulses that we consider uncivilized— is spread across the entirety of the cortex and many subcortical brain regions as well. The whole brain is involved in making us what we are. So we need not await any data from the lab to say that the self cannot be what it seems. (115-116) This is just one of the explanations why the notion of the conventional self is under scrutiny in philosophy, and has been so from the beginnings of philosophy itself. Pynchon began exploring the main topic of this essay, namely the self, in his first novel V. in it he describes identity as a multifaceted subject: I am the twentieth century. I am the ragtime and the tango; sans-serif, clean geometry. I am the virgin's-hair whip and the cunningly detailed shackles of decadent passion. I am every lonely railway station in every capital of Europe. I 3 am the Street, the fanciless buildings of government, the cafe-dansant, the clockwork figure, the jazz saxophone, the tourist-lady's hairpiece, the fairy's rubber breasts, the travelling clock which always tells the wrong time and chimes in different keys. I am the dead palm tree, the Negro's dancing pumps, the dried fountain after tourist season. I am all the appurtenances of night. (283) Yet it is in The Crying of Lot 49 (hereinafter abbreviated as Lot 49) that Pynchon truly delves into the topic of the self and identity. Pynchon in many ways performs a tour de force through history and his interpretations of the self in the novel stretch from René Descartes' "Cogito