So I tried making attempts at doing my homework tonight, and while I was able to get the history readings finished (the life and times of Buddhist nuns aren’t very interesting, especially in the Medieval Japanese era) as well as the Latin translations (Vergil and all his fun nonsense) I’m still mostly at a loss regarding my English paper which is due on Tuesday.
In my own masochistic ways, I decided to write my paper, which was broadly prompted as “explain the book in a new and interesting way”, on The Crying of Lot 49, by everyone’s favorite reclusive post-modernist author, Thomas Pynchon. So while I did enjoy reading the book, in all its chaotic and weird glory, I’m really not sure how best to explain the book itself, especially in that new and interesting way. I’m at the moment leaning towards a view of the novel, where everything is hypersaturated with meaning, as opposed to other interpretations which see it as devoid of meaning and banal (not to seem pretentious or anything, but its hard to write literary critique without sounding banal).
The problem is, that while I feel that there’s a meaning hidden behind the events of the novel, I’m not at all sure what exactly those meanings are. They’re present within the novel, I’m sure, but are they only readily apparent to the reader? or can Oedipa see them as well? Oedipa does wonder whether her knowledge of the whole Trystero conspiracy is in fact true, or whether she’s just making it up to give her something interesting in her life, which lends credence to the latter question, but it doesn’t quite explain if she can see any of the symbolisms and subtexts, beyond the conspiracy itself. for example, does she see Metzger, Hilarius, or Genghis Cohen as just people she has to interact with, or does she see them as obstacles in her part or guides to the final truth? for that matter, it’s not exactly clear to the reader either which way they act, if they are truly meant to be symbolic of something.
So yeah, I’m probably not going to have fun parsing out symbolism and meaning in this book (I’m already predicting a good amount of bullshit, but thats a prerequisite for literary papers, isn’t it?), and I might tie in some connection to Joseph Conrad and the Hero’s Journey, since they both involve the overarching and world-important quest. I might also bring in Joker from Batman, since one of the interpretations of the character is the hyperactive interpretation of reality, which might relate to Oedipa. Whatever though, I’m tired, and I’m just going to end up spending hours over this keyboard, writing the paper mostly in the one day before it’s due. wish me luck.
