Blog Post #7
Dana Watson
As I’ve been reading through the Crying of Lot 49, I’ve been trying to solve the “mystery” along with Oedipa, in which the book is centered around. But, however, I’m finding it really difficult to find a connection between everything we’ve found out and how it all fits together. In the book, it seems that in every chapter, Oedipa finds out two or three new facts, clues, or leads to work with, but when that happens, I get even more confused. Also, the whole book is just hard to take as a serious mysery novel, mainly because leads that Oedipa discovers never become evident so easily. For example, in chapter four, when Oedipa “got lost” during the stockholder’s meeting and runs into Stanley Koteks and receives a bunch of information; that’s hard to believe. But, I guess it comes with this type of novel. Overall, I’m just confused with the direction of the book. I’ve re-read portions and usually read parts of each chapter multiple times, but there are still a lot of holes for me. I may be reading through the book in a lighter way than I should; maybe I should dig deeper into the text and get the real meaning or message. As of right now, though, you could say that I’m pretty lost.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Blog Post #6 - Evolution of Oedipa
Blog Post #6
As I have been continuing my journey through The Crying of Lot 49, I’ve become to think a lot deeper into the person that is Odepia. At first, I didn’t really know what to think of her. To me, initially, she just seemed to be a little cooky, and, for lack of a better word, a slut. She plays with the advances of other men, and she also cheated on her husband with Metzger. But now, as she’s going to San Narciso and learning more about Pierce and his business deals, it seems as if she’s becoming more a serious character. Maybe, as the book progresses, she becomes more serious about the executing of the will and everything that it involves. Because now, she seems like she really wants to learn about the whole “bone” situation. I read about the island and boat part, but it seemed a little confusing at first – basically I got that Pierce bought bones from a country, or something. I don’t know; as of right now, I’m still trying to get a feel for book and where it is headed, as well as the characters and how they are going to evolve throughout the rest of the novel.
As I have been continuing my journey through The Crying of Lot 49, I’ve become to think a lot deeper into the person that is Odepia. At first, I didn’t really know what to think of her. To me, initially, she just seemed to be a little cooky, and, for lack of a better word, a slut. She plays with the advances of other men, and she also cheated on her husband with Metzger. But now, as she’s going to San Narciso and learning more about Pierce and his business deals, it seems as if she’s becoming more a serious character. Maybe, as the book progresses, she becomes more serious about the executing of the will and everything that it involves. Because now, she seems like she really wants to learn about the whole “bone” situation. I read about the island and boat part, but it seemed a little confusing at first – basically I got that Pierce bought bones from a country, or something. I don’t know; as of right now, I’m still trying to get a feel for book and where it is headed, as well as the characters and how they are going to evolve throughout the rest of the novel.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Blog Post #5 - Needle
As I started reading The Crying of Lot 49, I realized there was a lot more thought and meaning hidden deeper into the text than I thought there was going to be. I read through the first two chapters initially, but found myself going back to re-read the chapters a second time to fully grasp the events and possibly find any satire or symbolism that I possibly missed.
I came across a passage, where the town of San Narciso is described, and found it to be symbolic, perhaps. The passage is from the bottom of page 13 through the bottom of page 15. Here a few specific portions from that large section:
“But it had been Pierce’s domicile: the place he’d begun his land speculating…, and so put down the plinth course of capital on which everything afterward had been built, however rickety or grotesque, toward the sky…would set the spot apart. But, if there was any vital difference between it and the rest of Southern California, it was invisible on first glance.”
I think this passage is pretty symbolic of Pierce and his personality, perhaps. This city is a big city – high skyscrapers, big buildings, but most of them built poorly and grotesque-looking. The passage makes it seem that Pierce didn’t care what it looked like – he just wanted the city, “his” city, to become and icon in California. So, when Oedipa arrived, she became aware of the “real” city: smog everywhere, buildings surrounded by barbed wire, and large industries.
The next short passage is on the bottom of page 15. It is as follows:
“What the road really was, was this hypodermic needle, inserted somewhere into the vein of a freeway, a vein nourishing the mainliner L.A., keeping it happy, coherent, protected from pain, or whatever passes, with a city, for pain.”
I think this quote is very significant explaining San Narciso. It basically says that this city was created to be an outlet of all things bad that are associated with Los Angeles. San Narciso is a city created to nourish L.A. and keep it pure and protected from evils; evils that take haven in San Narciso. So, this shows what kind of town that San Narciso is and how the feelings of the characters, while in this city, are justified.
I came across a passage, where the town of San Narciso is described, and found it to be symbolic, perhaps. The passage is from the bottom of page 13 through the bottom of page 15. Here a few specific portions from that large section:
“But it had been Pierce’s domicile: the place he’d begun his land speculating…, and so put down the plinth course of capital on which everything afterward had been built, however rickety or grotesque, toward the sky…would set the spot apart. But, if there was any vital difference between it and the rest of Southern California, it was invisible on first glance.”
I think this passage is pretty symbolic of Pierce and his personality, perhaps. This city is a big city – high skyscrapers, big buildings, but most of them built poorly and grotesque-looking. The passage makes it seem that Pierce didn’t care what it looked like – he just wanted the city, “his” city, to become and icon in California. So, when Oedipa arrived, she became aware of the “real” city: smog everywhere, buildings surrounded by barbed wire, and large industries.
The next short passage is on the bottom of page 15. It is as follows:
“What the road really was, was this hypodermic needle, inserted somewhere into the vein of a freeway, a vein nourishing the mainliner L.A., keeping it happy, coherent, protected from pain, or whatever passes, with a city, for pain.”
I think this quote is very significant explaining San Narciso. It basically says that this city was created to be an outlet of all things bad that are associated with Los Angeles. San Narciso is a city created to nourish L.A. and keep it pure and protected from evils; evils that take haven in San Narciso. So, this shows what kind of town that San Narciso is and how the feelings of the characters, while in this city, are justified.
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