Ending Feelings

Throughout the book I noticed that most if the jokes that Thomas Pynchon made, and that in order for us to understand them we needed to have a good background and historical knowledge of the United States in the 1960’s. Since the beginning I knew that this was a satirical novel, and at first it was very hard for me to find and to catch all the of the satirical jokes, so instead of being funny and relaxed at the beginning for me this book was tense and I was looking all around for jokes that I could not catch. But then as I got used to them and relaxed I was able to find the satirical part of it.

Now regarding the end of this novel I can say that Oedipa ended up with her life made up a mess and all that she loved is now all gone and destroyed. Starting by saying that she completely lost her husband, Mucho. And that Dr. Hilarious is now gone completely insane, with many other factors Oedipa was completely ruined. And when the novel ends Pynchon is not really putting all the focus in the auction and the Tristeros, but even before that he is focusing on Oedipa and the sense that she lost everything she had for something that could have been a joke in the Inveraty.

Clues Leading To Confusions

As I continued to read this book I found that by this point Oedipa is living a mystery, to which she wants to find the solutions and has been able to find some clues one of these is: “She tailed him all the way back down the littered, shifty, loud length of the Market and over on First Street to the trans bay bus terminal, where he bought a ticket for Oakland. So did Oedipa”. (106) The problem is that this is not like any other kind of mystery movie or book that I have seen or read, in which generally as time passes by and the characters go finding clues, these will help them get closer to solve the mystery. In this book Pynchon does it kind of backwards, I mean he does give clues but instead of these clues leading the character towards the solution of the mystery, it leads her to more doubt and confusion. The night that Oedipa was wondering she was able to put many clues together but she was really confusing her more and more each time.


It is also important to state that by now Oedipa is having some emotional changes in her life. Meaning that she is feeling separated from Mucho, since he became in a victim of LSD. And it was also interesting for me to see how good Oedipa is doing in terms of her psychologically stability, during all this chaos and problems all around.

Finding Satire

After and as I was reading this chapter I found myself with many questions and comments. First of all I have to say that so far the names mentioned by Pynchon are really strange, weird and funny. I mean Oedipa, Mucho, Pierce, Metzger, Mike Fallopian, Mr. Hilarius. What kinds of names are these? Or would you ever name any of your children this way? Now that I was informed that this book was satirical I am finding the names as part of it.

Then regarding this precise chapter I have to say that as first it was really easy and simple, when oedipal was in the bar with Metzger and Mike Fallopian. But then, Oedipa decides to go to the bathroom, and sees a weird looking symbol, one that she cannot recognize. This shape was like: a "loop, triangle, and trapezoid" (p.38), beneath it said: “Kirby”. In the book, in this moment, after Oedipa saw this shape she is very confused and has no idea of what it might represent. And neither do I. But then I thought what might Pynchon want to say with this? Is he including any of the elements of satire in here? Hyperbole, target, irony or absurdity?

Oedipa

After reading chapter 2 of The Crying Of Lot 49, I wanted to talk about Oedipa. I thought that she was a great character and found interesting all that was happening to her and the way that she was handling it. So after she found out that her lover: Pierce, had died and that she was named to be the executrix of the estate of Pierce. So after she knowing this she went to San Narciso, this was a town in California and it was where Pierce’s law firm was located and where he used to live. In this law firm he had a lot of associates including: Metzger. This lawyer spend some time with Oedipa in a bar and they were drunk and started to play games in which she had to take off a piece of clothing by each time she talked about an specific topic. And this game went on and on and they ended up in the bathroom, and then they left and had sex. By now we can see that Oedipa is an unstable person she has no idea nor real conscious on what she is doing. She is acting for the moment without thinking what it may imply nor the consequences it may bring. I feel triggered to see what will be the next steps of Oedipa while continuing to read.

Characters

After knowing that this book is satire, I found myself very intrested in reading it. Since we studied satire in class with Mr. Tangen I have wanted to read a book of satire, this way i will understand it better and have a great time while reading it.
The main characters on chapter 1 of The Crying of Lot 49:

Oedipa Maas: Began to feel ill after knowing that Pierce had died. Needs an escape.

Wendell Mass: Is the husband of Oedipa, short tempered, and works by selling used cars.

Dr. Hilarius: Is a doctor and wants to perform drug experiments upon her.

Roseman: Is the lawyer and insists Oedipa to run away with him.

Pierce Inverarity: One of the ex-boyfriends of Oedipa, was a wealthy man, and a real-estate mogul, in California. He had lost money and died.

I thought that these characters were all very interesting and I found it funny to see that they are all very different from each other. Everyone seems to have their life formed individually and not really united. The part that I found most fun of this chapter was when Oedipa says that she felt she was Rapunzel and that when pierce tried climbing it was really a wig.

I think that the book is going to continue becoming funnier, and I really look forward and continue reading it.

Language Evolution

So I am almost done with this book. I am now reading chapter 12, which I think is the most interesting, fun and catching of all the other chapters in this book. This chapter focuses on the “Prisoners dilemma”. At first when I read about the “Prisoner dilemma” I did not really understand it until we played in class the other day. I was up on the first round with Laura Duarte and we had to play this game, we did 10 rounds and at the end we ended up being tied. This game was really fun and it was what I most enjoyed in tonight’s reading. But then I started to think, how I could relate chapters 11, 12 with Macbeth. But nothing came to my mind I was still in game mode with the “Prisoners dilemma”. The words default and cooperate kept running through my mind and at the same time I was still analyzing all of the strategies, and which I should use next time in order to win. And I my mind kept thinking about this, and so I had to start re-reading tonight’s homework. As I, again started chapter 11 I came across this line, which enlightened the connection path between MacBeth and The Selfish Gene.

"Language seems to 'evolve' by non-genetic means and at a rate which is orders of magnitude faster than genetic evolution" (p 189). Immediately as I saw the word language, Shakespeare came to my mind. The way that Shakespeare implements language in his works is extremely appealing. And this is totally true as time passes people go changing the languages adding some words over here and omitting some others over there. And if we compare our present-day English language with Shakespeare’s we will find it with the same bases, but we will clearly see a difference. And this difference as Dawkins says is ‘genetic evolution’.

Science Class Feeling?

As I began reading The Selfish Gene totally convinced that it was a fun and interesting novel, I was in shock to find out that it was about science. Ignoring the fact that it is hard for me to understand and enjoy science I found myself interested in the book and its proved theories and facts. Throughout the first three chapters evolution is a topic frequently used. And as I am learning in science class evolution in other words means: when the organisms change their environment in order to become better and to have advantage over the others. And it is very similar to what Dawkins describes it to. And then came the part of natural selection “genes become more numerous and others less numerous”. And then everything starting matching up in my mind to what I had learned in science class and by this point in the book Dawkins had finally caught my attention. But then I came to the part of DNA and there I started to lose focus again I was feeling like I was in class with Dr. Anne Gregory, and she was the one talking about the chromosomes each one had, and then I imagined her giving examples as always in class. But I was really reading Dawkins examples as I was imagining her saying them. “It is as though in every room of a gigantic building, there was a book-case containing the architects plans for the entire building.”(22) And as I kept reading and Dawkins kept switching themes I felt in science class, but fortunately in this case I was interested and it was easy for me to understand everything better. Now I am here writing my blog on my first chapters reading experience and waiting to see with what Dawkins will surprise me next.