Thomas Pynchon
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The Crying of Lot 49” (And How Not To)
1 FLESHING OEDIPA OUT How to Read “The Crying of Lot 49” (and How Not To) The Crying of Lot 49 is Thomas Pynchon’s shortest book, and some of its flaws probably result from its compactness. The jokey names, for instance, a feature of all of his books, can annoy some readers more here; I think it is really the sketchiness of the structure that grates—though less obtrusively to an average reader’s consciousness, perhaps, so that the names are what seem to cause the annoyance. The book’s shortness is probably what, with Pynchonian irony, attracts a certain type of reader who is less than prepared to contend with anything but the surface. The problem that Pynchon did not quite solve (though he is in my opinion too hard on himself in his retrospective comment1) is that while the book needed to be concise and is in fact the right length, the patented Pynchonian unraveling of the plot was harder to achieve in so short a space. The reader can become, like the protagonist, Oedipa Maas, “saturated” (177—all references to the first edition), overwhelmed by detail. Among other lapses, the concision leads to several clunky topic sentences (“Things then did not delay in turning curious” [44]). The introduction of an (imaginary?) postal service that has maintained itself for centuries in a shadowy parallel existence outside official history, is especially clumsy, and evokes sentences rankly amateurish, for example: “So began, for Oedipa, the languid, sinister blooming of The Tristero” (54; I will use this spelling throughout, not Trystero). -
Thomas Pynchon: a Brief Chronology
University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications, UNL Libraries Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln 6-23-2005 Thomas Pynchon: A Brief Chronology Paul Royster University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience Part of the Library and Information Science Commons Royster, Paul, "Thomas Pynchon: A Brief Chronology" (2005). Faculty Publications, UNL Libraries. 2. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications, UNL Libraries by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Thomas Pynchon A Brief Chronology 1937 Born Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr., May 8, in Glen Cove (Long Is- land), New York. c.1941 Family moves to nearby Oyster Bay, NY. Father, Thomas R. Pyn- chon Sr., is an industrial surveyor, town supervisor, and local Re- publican Party official. Household will include mother, Cathe- rine Frances (Bennett), younger sister Judith (b. 1942), and brother John. Attends local public schools and is frequent contributor and columnist for high school newspaper. 1953 Graduates from Oyster Bay High School (salutatorian). Attends Cornell University on scholarship; studies physics and engineering. Meets fellow student Richard Fariña. 1955 Leaves Cornell to enlist in U.S. Navy, and is stationed for a time in Norfolk, Virginia. Is thought to have served in the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. 1957 Returns to Cornell, majors in English. Attends classes of Vladimir Nabokov and M. -
The American Dream in the Crying of Lot 49
Filología y Lingüística xvnm» 39-44, 1992 PYNCHON'S PARABLE: THE AMERICAN DREAM IN THE CRYING OF LOT 49 Kari Meyers Skredsvig ABSTRACT Although the innovative style of Thomas Pynchon's The Crying 01 Lot 49 is both the delight and the despair of its readers, its impact derives from the mythopeic content and historical contexto In this short novel, Pynchon joins !he ranks of U.S. writers who explore individual and national identity in terms of social mythology. The American Dream is an integral people called upon to live in perfect, timeless componentof the history, literature, and lives of harmony with God and nature. the people of the United States. Not only has it The perpetration of this national covenant greatly influenced the politics, economic and depended upon their ability to avoid the parasitic socialprogress, and cultural values of the country, complexity of historical institutions, thus giving it has also shaped the spiritual and psychological rise to the insistence upon individual rights and development of both individuals and the responsibilities which is the basis not only for Americancomrnunity as a whole.' For over three American democracy, but also for the propagation hundred years, the American Dream has been of the American Dream. defined,revised, analyzed, and interpreted in as Throughout the following generations, the many ways as the number of people who American people have maintained their self- undertake the task. It has survived political righteous belief in the uniqueness of their nation manipulation,historical explanation, and literary and its inhabitants. In the twentieth century, interpretation,and remains an essential element of however, the dream has been secularized. -
The Grotesque in the Fiction of Joyce Carol Oates
Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Master's Theses Theses and Dissertations 1979 The Grotesque in the Fiction of Joyce Carol Oates Kathleen Burke Bloom Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Bloom, Kathleen Burke, "The Grotesque in the Fiction of Joyce Carol Oates" (1979). Master's Theses. 3012. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/3012 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1979 Kathleen Burke Bloom THE GROTESQUE IN THE FICTION OF JOYCE CAROL OATES by Kathleen Burke Bloom A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Loyola University of Chicago in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 1979 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Professors Thomas R. Gorman, James E. Rocks, and the late Stanley Clayes for their encouragement and advice. Special thanks go to Professor Bernard P. McElroy for so generously sharing his views on the grotesque, yet remaining open to my own. Without the safe harbors provided by my family, Professor Jean Hitzeman, O.P., and Father John F. Fahey, M.A., S.T.D., this voyage into the contemporary American nightmare would not have been possible. -
Staff Picks – 1960'S Literature
Staff Picks – 1960’s Literature Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan Adult Fiction An indescribable romp, the novel is best summed up in one word: mayonnaise. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote 364.152 On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. Five years, four months and twenty-nine days later, on April 14, 1965, Richard Eugene Hickock, aged thirty-three, and Perry Edward Smith, aged thirty-six, were hanged for the crime on a gallows in a warehouse in the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing, Kansas. In Cold Blood is the story of the lives and deaths of these six people. The Reivers by William Faulkner Adult Fiction This grand misadventure is the story of three unlikely thieves, or reivers: 11-year-old Lucius Priest and two of his family's retainers. In 1905, these three set out from Mississippi for Memphis in a stolen motorcar. The astonishing and complicated results reveal Faulkner as a master of the picaresque. The Magus By John Fowles Adult Fiction The story of Nicholas Urfe, a young Englishman who accepts a teaching assignment on a remote Greek island. There his friendship with a local millionaire evolves into a deadly game, one in which reality and fantasy are deliberately manipulated, and Nicholas must fight for his sanity and his very survival. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Marquez Adult Fiction Telling the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family, this novel chronicles the irreconcilable conflict between the desire for solitude and the need for love. -
Who Needs Thomas Pynchon? the Role of a Post- Foundational, Reader Response Author Lauren Kersey Regis University
Regis University ePublications at Regis University All Regis University Theses Spring 2012 Who Needs Thomas Pynchon? the Role of a Post- Foundational, Reader Response Author Lauren Kersey Regis University Follow this and additional works at: https://epublications.regis.edu/theses Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Kersey, Lauren, "Who Needs Thomas Pynchon? the Role of a Post-Foundational, Reader Response Author" (2012). All Regis University Theses. 570. https://epublications.regis.edu/theses/570 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by ePublications at Regis University. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Regis University Theses by an authorized administrator of ePublications at Regis University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WHO NEEDS THOMAS PYNCHON? THE ROLE OF A POST-FOUNDATIONAL, READER RESPONSE AUTHOR A thesis submitted to Regis College The Honors Program In partial fulfillment of the requirements For Graduation with Honors By Lauren Kersey May 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. POST-FOUNDATIONALISM: 6 DEFENDING DOUBT AS OPPOSED TO CERTAINTY III. READER RESPONSE THEORY: 23 EXPOSING INTERPRETATION AS OPPOSED TO MEANING IV. THOMAS PYNCHON: A RECLUSE WITH A SOCIAL IMPACT 37 V. CONCLUSION 77 BIBLIOGRAPHY 85 Preface This thesis provides a survey of post-foundational philosophy and explains reader response theory as one possible application of its insights within the field of literary theory. The main premise which unites these two theories is that belief precedes inference. Before people encounter any element of their world or any literary work, they harbor certain presuppositions that influence how they perceive and interact with that subject. -
Book Chapter Reference
Book Chapter Alterity MADSEN, Deborah Lea Abstract Thomas Pynchon's engagement with alterity is thematized psychologically through paranoia, schizophrenia, and narcissism; politically through systems of control that attempt to destroy otherness; economically through monopolistic transnational corporations and cartels that supplant national governments; scientifically through determinism and theories of entropy; aesthetically through film and photography, storytelling and the “routinization” of language. Pynchon thematizes these various aspects of culture as the effort to substitute the randomness of nature with a perfectly controlled, and controllable, version of reality: what, in Gravity's Rainbow, Pointsman describes as “a rather strictly defined, clinical version of truth.” This chapter considers how Pynchon's work has represented and complicated, by variously undermining and legitimating, contested understandings of identity and alterity. Pynchon's narrative engagement with liberal humanist ideas of essentialized identities gives rise to much of his narratological innovation and complexity, particularly when his exploration of ontological identity categories [...] Reference MADSEN, Deborah Lea. Alterity. In: Dalsgaard, I. ; Herman, L. & McHale, B. The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Pynchon. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012. p. 212 Available at: http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:92078 Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version. 1 / 1 “Alterity,” in The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Pynchon, -
English(Iv(Ap(Summer(Reading(Requirements(
ENGLISH(IV(AP(SUMMER(READING(REQUIREMENTS( ! The(summer(assignment(is(designed(so(that(AP(students:( ( • read!a!literary!work!that!forms!a!discussion!foundation!for!the!rest!of!the!school!year! • critically!analyze!and!respond!to!a!classic!piece!of!literature! • are!prepared!to!write!as!the!semester!begins! ! Required(Texts:( Homer!–!The$Iliad!(Fagels!translation)! Edith!Hamilton!–!Mythology$ DCE!Novels!(3)! ! 1. Homer's(Iliad:$$Thoughtfully!and!carefully!read!the!entire!Iliad.!Use!the!resources!provided! in!this!packet!to!help!you!in!your!reading.!The!translator's!preface,!introduction,!maps,!and! glossary!of!names!will!also!be!helpful.!Be!certain!to!understand!the!literal!level!details!of! the!entire!work!thoroughly!(expect!a!comprehension!test!on!them!the!first!week!of!school).! As!you!read,!use!PostCit(notes!to!bookmark!quotes!from!a!broad!swath!of!the!24!books!of! the!Iliad,!most!particularly!(but!not!limited!to),!books!1–3,!6,!9,!and!15!–24,!and!then!create! a!handwritten!collection!of!these!quotes!on!lined!paper.!The!purpose!of!your!quote! gathering!is!to!ensure!your!active!engagement!with!the!text!and!to!collect!quotes!to!use!as! supporting!evidence!in!an!inSclass!essay.!Do!not!analyze!the!quotes;!just!mark!them!with!a! PostSit!and!handSwrite!them!on!lined!paper.!As!you!read!The!Iliad:! ! ! Take!note!of!the!messages!or!insights!about!the!human(condition!that!Homer! ! conveys;!look!for!his!commentary—both!direct!and!indirect—about:!! ! ( ! ! ! ! love( free(will( ( ( ( ( friendship( fear( ( ( ( ( family( sacrifice( ( ( ( ( honor( loss( ( ( !( ! ( For!each!of!these!concepts,!mark!and!write!out!four!(4)!passages,!for!a!total!of!32.! ( ((((((( Do(not(rely(on(Internet(sources(for(your(quote(selection.(Your(collection(should(be(( ( ( a(personal(selection(of(quotes(that(strike(you(as(meaningful.(( ! ( 2. -
Pynchon in Popular Magazines John K
Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar English Faculty Research English 7-1-2003 Pynchon in Popular Magazines John K. Young Marshall University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://mds.marshall.edu/english_faculty Part of the American Literature Commons, American Popular Culture Commons, and the Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Young, John K. “Pynchon in Popular Magazines.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 44.4 (2003): 389-404. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the English at Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Faculty Research by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Pynchon in Popular Magazines JOHN K. YOUNG Any devoted Pynchon reader knows that "The Secret Integration" originally appeared in The Saturday Evening Post and that portions of The Crying of Lot 49 were first serialized in Esquire and Cavalier. But few readers stop to ask what it meant for Pynchon, already a reclusive figure, to publish in these popular magazines during the mid-1960s, or how we might understand these texts today after taking into account their original sites of publica- tion. "The Secret Integration" in the Post or the excerpt of Lot 49 in Esquire produce different meanings in these different contexts, meanings that disappear when reading the later versions alone. In this essay I argue that only by studying these stories within their full textual history can we understand Pynchon's place within popular media and his responses to the consumer culture through which he developed his initial authorial image. -
Drugs and Television in Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice
Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Senior Theses and Projects Student Scholarship Spring 2012 "Been Hazed and Fused for So Long it's Not True" - Drugs and Television in Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice William F. Moffett Jr. Trinity College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses Part of the Literature in English, North America Commons Recommended Citation Moffett, William F. Jr., ""Been Hazed and Fused for So Long it's Not True" - Drugs and Television in Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice". Senior Theses, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 2012. Trinity College Digital Repository, https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses/204 TRINITY COLLEGE Senior Thesis “Been Hazed and Fused for So Long it’s Not True” – Drugs and Television in Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice submitted by William Moffett Jr. 2012 In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in English 2012 Director: Christopher Hager Reader: James Prakash Younger Reader: Milla Riggio Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................................ i Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. ii Chapter 1: “Something in the Air?” – Cultural and Pynchonian Context of Inherent Vice ........................... 1 Chapter 2: “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out” – The Interrelated -
42 CRITICS DISCUSS Ship of Fools (1962) Katherine Anne Porter (1890
42 CRITICS DISCUSS Ship of Fools (1962) Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980) “My book is about the constant endless collusion between good and evil; I believe that human beings are capable of total evil, but no one has ever been totally good: and this gives the edge to evil. I don’t offer any solution, I just want to show this principle at work, and why none of us has any real alibi in this world.” Porter Letter to Caroline Gordon (1946) “The story of the criminal collusion of good people—people who are harmless—with evil. It happens through inertia, lack of seeing what is going on before their eyes. I watched that happen in Germany and in Spain. I saw it with Mussolini. I wanted to write about people in these predicaments.” Porter Interview, Saturday Review (31 March 1962) “This novel has been famous for years. It has been awaited through an entire literary generation. Publishers and foundations, like many once hopeful readers, long ago gave it up. Now it is suddenly, superbly, here. It would have been worth waiting for another thirty years… It is our good fortune that it comes at last still in our time. It will endure, one hardly risks anything in saying, far beyond it, for many literary generations…. Ship of Fools, universal as its reverberating implications are, is a unique imaginative achievement…. If one is to make useful comparisons of Ship of Fools with other work they should be with…the greatest novels of the past hundred years…. There are about fifty important characters, at least half of whom are major…. -
A Spatial Reading of Pynchon's California Trilogy
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Archivio della ricerca- Università di Roma La Sapienza “The Map is Not the Territory”: A Spatial Reading of Pynchon’s California Trilogy Department of European, American and Intercultural Studies Ph.D. Program in English-language Literatures Candidate: Ali Dehdarirad Supervisor: Prof. Giorgio Mariani Anno Accademico 2019-2020 Contents Acknowledgements iii Abbreviations iv Introduction 1 Chapter One The Crying of Lot 49 9 1. Introduction: 1.1. From the Fifties to the Sixties: A Critical Moment of Change 1.2. In the Midst of a Long Decade: The American Sixties after Kennedy 14 1.3. The Counterculture as Socio-cultural Reaction to the Politics of the Sixties 18 1.4. The Sixties in Pynchon’s Works 22 2. Inside The Crying of Lot 49: Toward a Geocritical Understanding 28 SECTION 1 30 2.1. The Spatial Dimension in Pynchon’s Early Life and Career 2.2. From Pynchon’s San Narciso to California’s Orange County 34 2.2.1. Creating San Narciso: Understanding the “postmetropolitan transition” 35 2.2.2. A Historical Analogy between San Narciso and Orange County 39 2.2.3. Reading Pynchon’s San Narciso through Geocritical Lenses: Understanding The Crying of Lot 49’s Narrative Structure through Fictional and Political Spaces 41 SECTION 2 45 2.3. An Analysis of Thirdspace in Pynchon’s Fiction 2.3.1. An Attempt at Reading Pynchon’s San Narciso through Thirdspace: The Search for an Alternative Reality in The Crying of Lot 49 47 Chapter Two Vineland 54 1.