The Crying of Lot 49

We should really get to 49 posts.

my professor was making a big deal of talking about signifiers & such during the class, and i kept rolling my eyes. weirdly lots in 49 seems like pomo-critic-bait: driblette's whine "why is everyone so interested in texts?" makes me stop and larf, altho i'm kinda fuzzy as to whether 'texts' had its sense of academic double-meaning in '64, for '49. the book josh mentions - 'lines of flight' - make a lot of the breaking of the frame in the varo triptich, which is kinda interesting. i dunno what the hell to do with this book: reading it as 'exemplary postmodernism' or whatever is a boring dead end, but reading it as a secret-depths-behind-apple-pie-america is just sad. both of these make one hell of a period piece out of it.

(the only way to break the frame of the novel i can see is with its links on either side, to V. and to GR, and maybe from there to something of actual real-world use)

(of course actually reading it, rather than trying to, i guess, take something from it, it somewhat great.)

the ending of chapter two is the section i am most curious about, for some reason.

enjoyment is a benefit, isn't it? i don't mean that in the trivial sense either.

you may be right. (i'm not sure my distrust of this book isn't a dislike of a couple general things external to this book, which conflicts with my ability to enjoy the book qua book) (not that this isn't the kind of process involved in interfacing with any kinda entertainartment ever, obviously)

i do like that lines of flight book, despite not being able to follow any of the delueze/guattari* stuff: particularly the fact that it tries to follow "counterculture politics" as a theme through GR is something i am glad of. however i have had to return it to the library after little more than a couple glances at it. oh, hey, d'you have the pynchon notes back issues link to hand?

*how do you pronounce these people, by the way? i have been wondering since more or less forever

i have a search function, you know

& oh hey thanx josh

Moby-Dick is back on play. The below-decks stowaways have appeared, to the consternation of many of the crew, and it is the first lowering. There is a reference to samphire, Casuistry. In chapter 46, I think.

we are past forty-nine posts, and no one has made note of this yet.

Also, did you notice that the radio station that Much works at is "FUCK" backwards. This very much shows the sense of humor that Pynchon has and his ability to not take things so seriously.

Now while this has no immediate analysis on the book, I just find them interest tid-bits.

i could be wrong tho

the prof in my last English class brought up "Oedipa my ass," for what that's worth.

who would NOT notice?

or is it wrong of me to assume that everyone was once an adolescent?

How can I learn to appreciate "The Crying of Lot 49"?

get a copy and read it?

I've read it once, it went over my head.

Wait awhile, then read it again. Read it slowly, read it quickly, read it while waiting in a lawyer's lobby, read it only at stoplights when you are stopped. Wait awhile between each read. Read about it, the opinions of people you admire and people you despise. Tear out an obscure page and saute it in butter. Tear it into pieces with forks, then chew each piece carefully, savoring. Read it without thinking; read it aloud where you can't be heard. Read it while falling asleep and tell yourself to dream its significance. Wake in the night and feel the print on the pages, make out the letters, spell out the words. Copy it out in longhand while listening to the haunting call of the muted posthorn.

and then start finding "W.A.S.T.E." stamped in weird places.

"I've read it once, it went over my head."

you are not alone.

i think i got rid of my first copy because i decided i liked the new cover but then i got rid of my new copy because i decided i didn't after all

thats the way to judge a book eh

hardcore pynchonites' contempt for this book is kinda hilarious

i like it because of the swinging '60s vibe and because i kinda relate to oedipa. surely everyone will at least concede it's better than 'v' (which i find completely unreadable), right?

No arguments from me, although the truth be told I didn't like crying that much either but it was at least shorter. There was a thread recently about not liking or not finishing books and I resisted the temptation to post about how I stopped reading V with about about five pages left. Reason I stopped was because I figured he wasn't going to explain anything anyway- please don't tell me otherwise-reason I didn't post was because it sort of felt like humblebragging, but I have no such scruple today. Still like that other crying thread.

V has its moments and is obviously a harbinger of greater things to come but I don't think back on reading it with much fondness.

Lot 49 is a great novel and I get the feeling people underrate it because its short and relatively zippy, but there's a hell lot going on in there and it feels particularly relevant right now. I would rate it above AtD and on a par with GR (which is unstoppable for its first half but sags in the second half).

Think ppl underrate Crying in part because Pynchon himself dismisses it in the introduction to Slow Learner

i've only laid out a lazy position above in response to lj, so i should state that reading crying in one feverish night sitting was one of the most intense and visceral trips of my life, it is imo a great work regardless of before, after or comparisons

I *do* think that TCOL49 would make a HELL of a movie, possibly by Linklater in his rotoscoped A Scanner Darkly mould

also, Gravity's Rainbow sags in its second half? dios mio

FWIW I think all the big Pynchons have a bit of a dip around 3/4 of the way in and then recover at the end, although none as pronounced as AtD. The section with all the rich kids shagging their way round the Balkans is eminently forgettable.

that's...the best bit*

*the best bit not involving the Chums obv, or the murder of the Italian anarchist, which is one of the best bits in Pynchon (of the 3 1/2 I've read)

AtD only loses me at all with the weird detective potboiler near the end, and even that's kinda fitting as way of uh disappearing Deuce. The Frank Traverse plotline kept threatening to lose me and then kept winning me around, especially him seeing that statue through the window (again, one of the best bits in Pynchon)

lol that post 'it's the best bit except this and this and this'

their climactic journey into the East is really amazing IMO

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/07/world/europe/princess-gloria-von-thurn-und-taxis-francis.html

Princess Gloria — once christened “Princess TNT” for her explosive years as a hard partying, art-collecting, punk-haired aristocrat — has grown into the sun queen around which many traditionalist Roman Catholics opposed to Pope Francis orbit. Her Regensburg castle is a potential “Gladiator School” for conservative Catholics on a crusade to preserve church traditions.

Her Roman palace overlooking the ancient forum is a preferred salon for opposition cardinals, bitter bishops and populists like Stephen K. Bannon. Many of them are hoping to use the sex abuse crisis that amounts to the greatest existential threat to the church in centuries to topple the 81-year-old pontiff, who they are convinced is destroying the faith.