Oedipal runs Into people with multiple names and identities, or who are actor sort compulsive role-players. (She herself gets the name tag ” Arnold Snare” stuck on her. ) Later, the men around her start dissolving or disappearing In even more drastic ways. Obviously, this sense of psychic variability Is a result of Ponchos method characterization, which gives surface traits rather than psychological depth; still, its good to remember that Hollywood Is not far away.
But suppose Hollywood is the world? And suppose Poncho is presenting us with a world without stable selves or identities? Write in any way that interests you about a few of these characters and the consequences for Oedipal of her encounters with them. -Oedipal herself- plays many roles, beginning we see her as a housewife, later as a student, even as a granddaughter -” Banal life at the beginning of the novel (Departure, fondue, kirsch, mixing drinks transcendence to protagonist on top of conspiracy, Like James bond with affair. Remember at the beginning when she talks about all the roles she could play. -gets lost and pretends to be a tourist/stockholder (56) ; As granddaughter talking to Mr.. Tooth (61) -Voyeur Listener and detective (85) -Pierce- many roles -Did Press- lawyer to actor to lawyer -Metzger- from child star movie/actor to lawyer -Much- car salesman to DC to molester/non-law-abider -Driblet- (peg 51) -A cross or the Initial T? Could be either in the wells Fargo Incident (60) -Motherly when meeting Genesis Cohen (64) -Arnold Snare (75) -NAZI salesman- Zap books Buchwald Ramp: Dry.
Hilarious; Oedipal turned into her normal conscious self for a little while, tells police her name (95) -Eyewitness (much interviewed her) and Edna moss (peg 97) E) Paranoia and Reading: How does the experience of reading The Crying of Lot 49 resemble Oedipal way of making meaning? -” I want to see if there’s a connection. Im curious” at the play before Driblet (page -” Why is everybody so Interested in texts? ” Poncho, via Driblet, speaks to the reader: ” You guys, you’re Like the Puritans about the Bible. So hung up with rods, words. 16 This Is not a warning to the reader and Oedipal against Interpretation. Instead, It Is a warning to the reader and Oedipal of the addictive nature of their respective searches. Alpha’s search Tort ten Orlando version of ‘The Courier’s Tragedy’, which is obstructed by her inability to separate her play from its author, editor or producer, is an exaggerated metaphor of the r trader’s troubles in making sense of the novel. 17 For our purposes, they serve to wed the reader’s quest for a literary meaning with Oedipal quest for self-discovery.
As mentioned before, a major el meet within the reader and Oedipal quest is paranoia. Paranoia pushes the reader through the text. We are constantly led towards a conclusion, but then deceived. Our inability to decipher symbols relates to our inability to increase the communicative entropy of our world. Nevertheless, The Crying of Lot 49 succeeds in actively involving the reader within the text, a hallmark of postmodern literature. -Looked on bathroom wall again to find symbol. Asks playwright about bones. *More she looked into things more she saw in it (53/54)