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The Postmodern Landscape of Thomas Pynchon's the Crying Of The Postmodern Landscape of Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 Master Thesis Literary Studies: Literature and Culture Supervisor: Carrol Clarkson 2 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................. 3 Defining the Flâneur .................................................................................................... 5 1.1 The Possibility of a female flâneur .................................................................. 7 1.2 The Postmodern flâneur ................................................................................... 9 2. Oedipa's Journey From the Suburbs to the Streets ........................................ 15 2.1 Escaping the Suburbs ..................................................................................... 16 2.2 The Detctive Plot in Lot 49 ............................................................................ 20 2.3 The representation of Academic Inquiry in Lot 49 ........................................ 26 2.4 Oedipa's Role as Flâneur ................................................................................ 32 3. The Postmodernism of Lot 49 ........................................................................... 38 3.1 Embracing the Uncertainty ............................................................................ 41 3.2 The Postmodern City ..................................................................................... 48 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 52 Works Cited ................................................................................................................ 54 3 Introduction In the 1966 novel The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon weaves together an image of a dreamlike America consisting of real and imaginary places. The city plays a predominant role in the story as Pynchon’s protagonist, Oedipa Maas, can be seen exploring the urban landscapes of San Francisco and the fictional San Narciso. In doing so Oedipa comes to embody the same perceptive attitude as Walter Benjamin’s flâneur: she views the city as being capable of conducting her into a vanished time and as containing “a hieroglyphic sense of concealed meaning” (Pynchon 19). One of the key moments in the novel, therefore, is when Oedipa decides to “drift […] at random, and watch nothing happen” (96). It is in the physical act of walking and observing the city that she comes closest to an understanding of both her own subjectivity and also the society she inhabits. A few critics have mentioned the possibility of reading Pynchon’s Oedipa Maas as a flâneur (e.g. Paul Jahshan and Daniela Daniele) but no one appears to have written extensively on the topic. Nevertheless, The Crying of Lot 49 gives an important insight into how this famous icon of urban modernity has adapted to the age of postmodernity. In the novel it is possible to track Oedipa’s transformation from a detached and authoritative spectator to her embracing a more marginal role as postmodern flâneur where she is able to engage with the diversity of the city. Although Oedipa goes back and forth between the two roles she comes, at least temporarily, to embrace fragmentation and partiality in her interactions with the city. Oedipa occupies several roles that all tie her to the figure of the flâneur: she is a drifter, an amateur detective, and an academic. As a detective and as an academic Oedipa subjects clues and texts to vigorous scrutiny in the belief that any concealed 4 meaning she discovers will be unifying. However, as the novel progresses and Oedipa steps into the role of a drifter she moves from “decipherment and self-enclosure to […] randomness” (Petillon 137). It is, as Pierre-Yves Petillon points out, a journey that takes her out of the conventional fifties and into the countercultural sixties (137). Although the novel takes place in 19641 Pynchon appears to be representing a period of transition, thus Oedipa can be viewed as a transitional figure, or as a mediator between two ages. Oedipa also inhabits a middle space in her role as a flâneur since she has gained a postmodern sensibility that moves her beyond Benjamin’s definition of the figure; yet she is, finally, unable to completely abandon her modernist hope of being able to decipher the chaos of experiences into a comprehensible narrative. Thus The Crying of Lot 49 at once reconsiders the relation of the individual to the modern city, while it also stresses how the encounter with a fragmented urban space can be a terrifying experience. Pynchon suggests a clear link between the spatial environment of the city and individual subjectivity; therefore we see how Oedipa struggles to come to terms with the possibility of her identity being as fragmented as the urban space she encounters. The purpose of this thesis is threefold. Firstly, it aims to come to a definition of the postmodern flâneur by discussing the work of Walter Benjamin and contemporary critics, such as Susan Buck-Morss and Deborah L. Parsons. Secondly, it will explore The Crying of Lot 49 in detail with a particular focus on how Oedipa transitions from a state of self-enclosure to a more perceptive state as a flâneur capable of listening to the dispossessed people of her society. Finally, it will discuss whether the novel can be considered postmodern and how Pynchon’s description of the “decentered” city can be viewed as a reflection of postmodern subjectivity. 1 In chapter 5 the year 1904 is printed on a subscription magazine, which prompts a character to wonder whether it “has it really taken sixty years” for it to arrive by mail (92). This calculation suggests that the novel is taking place in 1964. 5 1. Defining The Flâneur For the perfect flâneur, for the passionate spectator, it is an immense joy to set up house in the heart of the multitude, amid the ebb and flow of movement, in the midst of the fugitive and the infinite. To be away from home and yet to feel oneself everywhere at home; to see the world, to be at the centre of the world, and yet to remain hidden from the world—such are a few of the slightest pleasures of those independent, passionate, impartial natures which the tongue can but clumsily define (Baudelaire 9). The passage above conveys at once the contradictory and elusive nature of the flâneur; nevertheless, critics have made use of this metaphorical figure again and again as a way to understand the modern metropolis and modernity itself. The word was first used to describe a very specific social type who could be seen strolling the streets and arcades of 19th century Paris. Described as a man of leisure and as someone who enjoys going “botanizing on the asphalt” (Benjamin, “The Flâneur” 36), the image we get of the flâneur is of a person who has the means and freedom to go wherever he pleases. Yet, he is not simply an idler but spends his time observing and investigating “the stony labyrinths of the metropolis” (Benjamin, The Arcades Project 434). Since his heyday the flâneur has not quietly gone into extinction, but the term has become an important symbol, an analytical device, and an urban archetype, especially due to the work of Walter Benjamin in the early 20th century. However, this ambiguous character continues to refuse to be pinned down and has been likened to everything from the literary detective to the postmodern surfer of cyberspace. The term, then, might be at risk of being too inclusive, which could result in it becoming meaningless (Parsons 4). In contrast Benjamin offers a rather narrow characterisation of the flâneur by implying that this important figure is by definition a middle-class man who can only exist in certain environments, such as those found within the Parisian arcades. Thus the possibility of a contemporary presence is almost impossible, at least according to Benjamin, since the flâneur was on the verge of 6 extinction at the time he was writing, driven from his natural habitat by the increased pace of modernity. To get a sense of the favoured speed of the flâneur Benjamin notes that around 1840 it was briefly fashionable to bring turtles for a walk in the arcades, letting the animal set the pace for the walker (“The Flaneur” 54). But by the early 20th century, the time in which Benjamin was writing, the increased pace of traffic and the manifestations of a swollen urban population made the slow pace favoured by the stroller impossible; thus the majority of the flâneurs retreated to the safety of the indoors. Despite Benjamin’s suggestion that the flâneur would inevitably disappear due to the effects of capitalism upon metropolitan life several critics have claimed that the figure has evolved into contemporary incarnations, for instance as Susan Buck-Morss suggests: The flâneur becomes extinct only by exploding into a myriad of forms, the phenomenological characteristics of which, no matter how new they may appear, continue to bear his traces, as ur- form. This is the truth of the flâneur, more visible in his afterlife than in his flourishing (346). In Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 we encounter just one of these recent incarnations of the flâneur. Oedipa Maas, the protagonist of the novel, is unemployed, independent (her husband is indifferent to her leaving the house for several days), and financially well off – in other words, she has the time and the means for flânerie. She is also a Young Republican and a housewife; she is painfully ordinary,
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