Crying Of Lot 49

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and
television. She is forced out of her complacent housewife lifestyle of
tupperware parties and Muzak into a chaotic system beyond her capabilities
to understand. Images and facts are constantly spit forth. Oedipa's role
is that of Maxwell's Demon: to sort useful facts from useless ones. The
reader's role is also one of interpreting countless symbols and metaphors
to arrive at a meaning. Each reader unravels a different meaning.
Unfortunately, Maxwell's Demon can only apply to a closed system.
Pynchon's fictional system is constantly expanding to include more and
more aspects of contemporary America.5 Therefore, the reader and Oedipa
are inefficient sorters. Both are left at a panicky state of confusion,
or paranoia.

Paranoia unites the reader and Oedipa. If we define "paranoia" not as a
mental aberration but as a tendency to find meaning in symbols whether the
meanings exist or not, we can clearly see the similarity between Oedipa
and us. Paranoids do not see plots ...

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lure the reader into the character's search for meaning.

Furthermore, the alternations of fact with fiction, such as the
description of the historical basis of the Peter Pinguid Society8, confuse
the reader to such an extent that he is forced to rely upon Oedipa to
decipher reality from illusion. Pynchon even denies the reader and Oedipa
time to sort out the information by moving rapidly to the next event.

The blending of authenticity with fiction introduces an epistemological
aspect to Pynchon's work. Much of The Crying of Lot 49 tackles the
historical evidence for the Trystero. Scholars have found that the actual
history of the Trystero, a Renaissance postal system, was shrouded ...

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