The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
"The Crying of Lot 49" is a novella by Thomas Pynchon that follows the journey of Oedipa Maas, a woman who discovers she has been named coexecutor of the estate of her ex-lover, millionaire Pierce Inverarity. As she navigates the complexities of the estate, Oedipa encounters a series of eccentric characters and starts to unravel a secretive postal network known as Tristero, which symbolizes an underground struggle for communication and connection. Throughout her quest, she grapples with themes of paranoia, entropy, and the nature of meaning in a chaotic world.
The narrative is rich with surreal elements and cultural references, as Oedipa attends various events, including a Jacobean play that echoes her quest for understanding. Her exploration leads her to uncover mysterious symbols, like the post-horn, and engage with figures from the realms of politics, technology, and art, revealing a tapestry of interconnections that challenge her perception of reality.
As Oedipa delves deeper, she confronts the ambiguity of information and the potential malleability of truth, making her journey not just about solving the mystery of Tristero, but also about contemplating her own identity and relationships. Pynchon's work invites readers to ponder the complexities of communication in modern society and the search for meaning in an increasingly fragmented world.
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
First published: 1966
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Dark comedy
Time of plot: One summer between 1963 and 1966
Locale: Northern California
Principal Characters
Oedipa Maas , a young woman, and coexecutor of an estatePierce Inverarity , Oedipa’s former lover, a millionaire, now deadMetzger , a lawyer, and coexecutor of Pierce’s willMike Fallopian , a right-wing political extremistRandolph Driblette , a stage directorStanley Koteks , an engineerJohn Nefastis , an inventorZapf , a booksellerGenghis Cohen , a stamp collectorEmory Bortz , a scholar and professor
The Story
Oedipa Maas receives a letter informing her that she has been named coexecutor of the estate of her former lover, millionaire Pierce Inverarity. She goes to San Narciso to meet Metzger, a lawyer and the estate’s coexecutor, and first sees him at the Echo Court Motel. Also at the motel are members of a rock band called the Paranoids. Oedipa is seduced by Metzger after the two watch a television rerun of Metzger playing Baby Igor as a child film star.
Oedipa and Metzger go to an electronic-music bar called the Scope several nights later. She meets Mike Fallopian, an enthusiast for an extreme far-right political group. He explains to her a strange delivery made to the bar by a private mail courier. In the restroom, Oedipa sees a postbox with a post-horn symbol, beginning her discovery of Tristero, a mysterious dark group behind a struggle for private and secret postal delivery in the United States and in Europe.
Next, Oedipa and Metzger go to Fangoso Lagoons, near San Narciso, to see one of Pierce’s property developments. The two executors soon meet Manny Di Presso, an attorney for a gangster who had a corrupt business deal with Pierce that involves the bones of former US soldiers and, later, the dumping of some of those bones in the project’s lagoons to attract divers. Later, the Paranoids tell Oedipa of The Courier’s Tragedy, a Jacobean revenge tragedy by Richard Warfinger that director Randolph Driblette is producing at a little theater (also a part of Pierce’s estate). Metzger and Oedipa attend the play, which includes a murder: Men in black murder an Italian Renaissance courier then throw his body in a lake in a scene that uses the name Tristero, a name she remembers from the bar. Oedipa interviews Driblette after the performance, but he refuses to clarify the origin of the idea for the black-clothed Tristero assassins. He does confirm, however, that they are not part of the original text of The Courier’s Tragedy.
Oedipa attends a Yoyodyne stockholders meeting because Pierce had held stock in the company. Stanley Koteks, a Yoyodyne employee, tells her about John Nefastis, who had invented a perpetual motion machine. Oedipa then tries to locate the edition of Warfinger’s plays that could lead to Tristero. She goes to Zapf, a used-books store, to look for the play, but the store owner says he has no copies. She then decides to visit Berkeley to see Nefastis, but before she leaves she visits Mr. Thoth, a ninety-one-year-old man who remembers that his father had told him about mysterious black marauders who murdered Pony Express riders in the American West in the nineteenth century. Thoth, who links this tale to the classic anarchists of Porky Pig cartoons of the 1930s, is wearing his father’s old ring, which features the same post-horn symbol that Oedipa had seen at the bar. The ring, she is told, had been cut from the finger of one of the black marauders. Oedipa then consults Genghis Cohen, an eminent stamp collector, about Pierce’s own stamp collection. In this collection they find a number of mysterious printed stamps containing black figures, post-horn watermarks, and other ominous marks.
Oedipa, back in Berkeley, buys a copy of the Warfinger text and discovers that it does not contain a reference to Tristero. The text, however, does contain a footnote about a corrupt alternate version of the text (which might contain the reference). She also tries to see the Nefastis machine, but fails. Nefastis instead explains to her the nature of entropy; for example, he tells her that information could become more unclear as it recedes into history. She next wanders through San Francisco at night, mulling over the mystery of Tristero and stumbling over repeated post-horn symbols and mentions of W.A.S.T.E. (We Await Silent Tristero’s Empire). She posts a letter via W.A.S.T.E. for a dying old sailor and follows—but to no avail—the courier who picks it up.
Oedipa leaves San Francisco to visit her psychiatrist, Dr. Hilarius, and discovers that he has gone mad. He reveals his Nazi past and fears he is being attacked by Israeli agents. Oedipa helps disarm him and then talks to her husband, Wendell “Mucho” Maas, who is staffing a radio station’s mobile unit. Oedipa sees her relationship with her husband slipping away.
Oedipa returns to San Narciso to meet Emory Bortz, the scholar who has edited Warfinger’s works. They have long discussions about the mystery of Tristero. She later visits Cohen a second time. He tells her that Pierce’s stamp collection (which contains mysterious misprinted stamps) is going to be auctioned off as lot no. 49. Later, Oedipa, at the auction, waits to see a mysterious bidder, possibly an agent of Tristero, who is seeking to buy Pierce’s mysterious stamps and to possibly hide or destroy them.
Bibliography
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