Reading Response 6-Part Deux -Phil’s Response

I decided to comment on Phil’s response because I have never had the opportunity to tell him that I think he has a lot of very relevant insights that he provides for the class discussions.  I also like your reading response 6.  Swell job Phil..

Phil interpreted the reading response a little differently from me, but I really like what he came up with.  Phil obviously invested time styling his writing so it would mirror and be true to the style with which Pynchon wrote The Crying of Lot 49. Phil’s vignettes help to relay the affect of Oedipa’s experience; her growing sources for information which lead to mounting confusion.  As I saw Audrey also chose to do in her response (with the image of a lamb), Phil used the image of a clover leaf with the word LIFE imprinted on it.  Like Pynchon, these symbols help to move the reader through Phil’s narrative.

Phil’s narrative uses the mode of reason, not necessarily binary reasoning, because there are several different courses Oedipa could chose to take, but reasoning because Oedipa tries to take logical steps to find out what the LIFE symbol means.  Finally, the response definitely leads Oedipa to new information, or at least different information, while also opening new questions.  Phil, similar to Pynchon’s novel, creates new questions without really giving Oedipa answers, which prevents Oedipa, and the reader from reaching the goal.  I think that was also in the directions.  Good job Phil.

Extra Credit Opportunity-Prompt 6

Starting in Chapter 5, Oedipa sees the Tristero/WASTE postal system at work.  When she follows the WASTE mail collector around, he leads her back to John Nefastis.  This eventually leads nowhere, and John Nefastis is not mentioned again.

In Chapter 6, Pynchon makes his first attempts to reveal some answers to the reader.  Oedipa finally learns all about Tristero’s history, and generally how Tristero and Thurn and Taxis came to be.  This however, offers no explanation to the question that originally piqued Oedipa’s interest, which is “why did Driblette refer to Tristero in the production she saw of The Courier’s Tragedy?” Well, Driblette immediately dies, closing the door on ever knowing the answer of including Tristero in the production.  Ghengis Cohen, Oedipa’s hired stamp expert, contacts Oedipa to tell her that he has found WASTE printed in the corner of a stamp recieved from Zap’s Used Bookstore, the same place Oedipa first purchased her copy of The Courier’s Tradgedy. She goes on to find that Zap’s, and the Tank Theatre where Oedipa first saw Driblette perform, are all owned by the Pierce Inverarity Estate, which is beginning to serve as the common denominator to all things Tristero.

Finally, Oedipa is certain she will get answers when they do the crying of lot 49.  However, Pynchon decides to end the novel there, leaving Oedipa and the reader with many unanswered questions.

Just looking at Oedipa’s quest to uncover clues and solve the mystery of the Tristero would really negate the assemblage of other, often seemingly unrelated narratives.  The Crying of Lot 49 is written as an anti-detective novel, meaning what actually happened, the actual detective work that Oedipa did, eventually comes to no avail because it is not what the book is about.  Pynchon purposefully let his story end without really finishing for a number of reasons.  First, because this is not a detective novel, but rather a satire about different fragments of American cultural and how they piece together, Pynchon ended the novel at  a more than appropriate time because he had finished discussing every aspect he wanted to cover.  Second, Pynchon has Oedipa conclude that there can only be four, equally viable, symmetrical options, resulting from what we discussed in class to be reductive, binary logic.  Deciding that there could only be four solutions to her dilema effectively “filtered” out a lot of information that either could or could not be important.  Pynchon may have ended the book at the crying because Oedipa was not recognizing and reacting any longer to her changing situation (ie Driblette dying, Oedipa leaving Mucho) and would never be able to finish her mystery.  Similarly, Pynchon can’t really put a finished period on his book because it’s written about a subject (fragmented American culture and integration) that is constantly changing, and what’s really definitive about that?

I feel like Pynchon’s inclusion of LSD (drugs), Oedipa’s growing confusion and paranoia, and the uber-complicated mystery she is trying to solve all resonate together, throughout the novel The Crying of Lot 49. We talked in class about resonance being a relationship between two narratives, and how they interact.  Our class discussion prompted talking about how music notes work together to create pitches that are pleasing to listen to.  I think each of these notes, when “played” together, make the novel what it is.  First, Pynchon uses LSD (among other references like the Paranoids) as a tool to keep the narrative grounded in the 1960′s culture.  Second, Oedipa is experiencing diminished physical and mental capabilities, increased confusion and paranoia as her search for the Tristero  continues.  What’s making her so confused; taking the drugs?  The mystery Oedipa is trying to solve; all the different people she is forced to contact and deal with during her mission, reinforce the eclecticism of west coast American life during this time period.  Seperately, each of these disparate elements could mean, or take on a number of different meanings.  When heard “resonating” together however, we begin to understand why Pynchon included them and they make sense in the greater context of the novel.

Pynchon makes it abundantly clear that binary, very cause and effect, logic can’t be used by Oedipa to reach her desired solution.  One of the key themes in the novel is that of entropy, or the measure of random, non-cause and effect related events that shaped the novel.  By allowing each of the characters and narratives “resonate” as an assemblage, rather than being pigeon-holed into a specific role allowed the novel to come alive for the reader.

Seeking out the Truth

“And tacit lies the gold once muted horn”

Dipping one foot slowy into the steaming water to check the temperature, Oedipa repeated these words from The Courier’s Tradgedy over and over in her mind, each time gaining familiarity and still doing nothing to quell the mounting apprehension she felt growing in the pit of her stomach.

The Thurn and Taxis coat of arms, Tristero, a muted horn, but what do they mean…  Oh my! Oedipa exclaims in a moment of realization, driving her car from the road and kicking rocks and sand into the lazy, afternoon sky, “Tristero is trying to silence Thurn and Taxis!”

_______________________

Driving west on Highway 24, the warm southern California sun slapping whimsically at her face as she drove, Oedipa wondered as to the type of information Emory Bortz would provide about Richard Wharfinger, and the mute on the Tristero horn.

Tap, Tap, Tap.. “Excuse me, can I help you find someone?”  I’m looking for professor Emory Bortz, do you know where I might be able to find him this afternoon?  ”I’m sorry, Professor Bortz left here to teach in a less liberal setting, something about all these young whipper snappers and the moral decay of a generation.”Oh!  This is so hopeless, everywhere I go, I turn over more questions and am confronted with nothing but dead ends!

“Well, now that I am here, I might as well go see this John Nefastis character; He may know something about the muted Tristero horn.  That would be enough to salvage this trip for me.”

“Come in”

Good afternoon professor Nefastis, I am Oedipa Mass and I have been made chief execturix of an ex-lovers will.  I feel myself being pulled into this turbulent underground conspiracy, something to do with two ancient old world mail couriers, the Tristero and Thurn and Taxis.  I was told that you may have some information about these subjects?

“I’m sorry, but you must be mistaken”

“But what about W.A.S.T.E, box 537?  You know what I’m talking about!”

In an instant, Nefastis’ demeanor changes, and his harsh inflection and curt reply denouncing the subject encourage Oedipa not to press this issue. “I know nothing about either subject, I wouldn’t spend another second thinking about either one if you know whats good for you.”

“Before you go, you should become a subject in my experiement.  I have recently finished developing a machine called a “Maxwell’s Demon” which defies the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which forbids the existence of perpetual motion.  Would you like to see if you are able to operate it?

“God, what have I gotten myself into?

________________________

“It’s been a hard days night, and I’ve working, like a dog”

Oedipa’s radio hummed  melodiously the new hit single “A Hard Days Night” by some new hipsters that called themselves “The Beatles”.

“Boy, these guys really embody how I feel right now; they can really write”.

“But when I get home to you, I find the things that you do, will make me feel all right”.

“God, I miss Mucho, I wonder how he is doing with his insecurities without me being his rock with which to anchor”?

Driving North on I-85 toward the home of Emory Bortz, Oedipa finds herself so engulfed in thought and the impressionable music from her radio, she nearly misses her turn.

Oedipa finds Bortz in his backyard, instructing a class of students.  He welcomes her to join, and respectfully answers her questions about Tristero and The Courier’s Tradgedy.

“So unfortunately, that is all I am able to tell you about Tristero, and I’m afraid gathering more information on the subject maybe getting exponentially more difficult for you.”

“How do you mean?”

“The real person you want to talk to is a man by the name of Driblette, Randolph Driblette.”

“Oh? It would be wonderful for you to put me in contact with him”

“Unfortunately, that is impossible.  He has been dead for four days.”

“Oh no!  Another dead end!”

Myths as a form of expression

Silko uses several myths in Ceremony as a way to express Laguna life.  Though not her own experience, Silko’s cultural upbringing is one in which she is part of a “people” that prosper and perish together.  Ceremony is set in the collective suffering of the Laguna people following WWII, as the young veterans return from the war.    Ceremony’s protagonist Tayo, is forced to embrace the traditions of his people, the myths that he no longer believes to be fact, because he realizes these myths are necessary for his own healing.  I will assert that Silko is also able to give a more personal projection on Tayo, though the character is not necessarily based on the author.

Silko uses the Laguna myth of the “Gambler”, “Spider Woman”, and “Sun Man” as a means to explain the drought the Laguna people were experiencing.  According to the myth, the  Gambler was holding the rain clouds hostage, causing a drought.  Spider Woman, Sun Mans grandmother, sends Sun Man up the Zuni Mountains with information to defeat the Gambler, releasing the storm clouds and bringing rain to the Laguna people.  Though Tayo knows this is not really why they are experiencing drought, Tayo feels a certain connection to these myths, believing they may have had truth in what his own grandmother refers to as time immemorial.  In any case, they connect Laguna myth with the “real world” experience of drought.

The prompt indicates that we should explain how the relationship between myth and experience negotiates the past, culture, and tradition as well as an individuals identity.  It’s very relevant to point out that Tayo’s situation was somewhat unique in that he was a part of the first generation of Laguna’s given an opportunity to do something different other than a very traditional way of life.  This means that many of his elders, the people who raised him like Auntie, Robert, and Josiah, were cut from the more traditional cloth.  I equate Tayo’s connection with his native Laguna myths as any American’s connection with Santa Clause (sort of).  It’s one of those things you grow up believing, only to find out that it is not true.  Somewhere, in the back of your head, you allow yourself to retain a bit of Santa Clause as truth.  Similarly, Tayo still embraces, to an extent, old Laguna myths because that is what he was raised to believe, and is something that has always been believed by his people.

Written in similar style to Morrison’s Jazz, Silko also writes Ceremony about a time in which she is a generation removed, giving her no direct contact with the events and trials for the Laguna war veterans immediately following WWII.  Silko uses Laguna myths as a basis for expression.  Many people criticized Silko for divulging the myths, allowing how she overstepped the boundary between good literature and relying on Laguna tradition to round out the novel.  These myths however, are really important to Ceremony in that they are the only things truly anchoring Tayo to native traditions.

Experiencing “freedom”

Option 1

For this post, I will discuss how “freedom” is experienced as a mode of belief in the book Jazz. In Jazz, Morrison shows us what it means to be a free “white” man in post antebellum Virginia at the turn of the 20th century.  This post will address Golden Gray’s experience, unique in the fact that Golden is able to be free in his simple ignorance of his true origin, yet mired with the knowledge of his true father.  Golden Gray’s life began with his mother, Vera Louise Gray, the daughter of the wealthy Colonel Wordsworth Gray, and Henry LesTroy, a family slave consummating Golden in the woods on one of Vera Louise’s horseback rides.  The colonel, having lost all love with Vera after the incident, throws her to the world where she settles in Baltimore, biracial baby Golden on the way.  Morrison writes of Vera’s mother that “only breeding, careful breeding, did not allow her to spit [on Vera]“.  Golden was never truly in jeopardy of being a slave for two reasons; first, Baltimore was in the Union and second, Golden was born with a very light complexion and fair, blonde hair, giving every indication that he was fully Caucasian.  Freedom for a man of black descent in this period is a dual perception, both of how others view and treat you and how you regard and respect yourself.  Morrison shows how prevalent racism and “belief” about skin tones and nationalities are when Vera describes Golden’s father as “a blacked-skinned nigger”.  Although I am unable to find the quote, Vera also looked on Golden not with love, but with a curiosity about the origin of his blonde hair.

This is why I describe Golden Gray’s freedom as a form of belief; although unchanged, Golden’s status in the world hangs in the balance depending on how he chooses to embrace his heritage, or his personal “beliefs” about his place and self-worth.  Was Golden Gray a “free” man?  He was not forced to work in the fields under a white master, nor was he even ever able to be visually judged by his peers.  He however lacks a sense of racial identity, or what Jessica termed “outcultural inequality”, which served to cloud his judgement and eventually drives him to a permanent home in the woods with Wild.  In many ways, Golden’s “freedom” is lost because he is neither black nor white, and the “belief” that he is different essentially does far more to hurt Golden than the color of his skin.  Golden at one point comes to the realization of his black heritage saying “[I] always thought there was only one kind-True Belle’s kind. Black and nothing. Like Henry LesTroy. Like the filthy woman on the cot.  But there was another kind- like [my]self”.

We discussed in class today about what to intuit from a reading, and how a character’s experience functions to make it “real” for the reader.  As I already said, Golden must have felt trapped between two cultures, unable to be a part of either.  It is written about Vera that “almost every other thing she said was false, but that last bit of information he held to be graven truth.”  Vera doesn’t respect Golden as her child because of his father, and allows him to grow up thinking he is white, treating blacks as totally inferior (the way Vera treated True Belle).  Upon finding his father, he is rebuked by him, paraphrasing “if your going to be my son, you had better act like it”.  Golden realizes he is neither white nor black and is driven to insanity and banishes himself to live with Wild in the woods.

Reading Response 3

After reading and discussing Vonnegut’s Sluaghterhouse 5, and also doing my own investigation into the Dresden fire bombings, I’ve come to understand the scope, and in what context the bombings had occurred.  These were senseless attacks targeting civilians at the end of a long and taxing war.  It was a horrific event that ultimatley served no purpose other than to rack up a higher death tole.  Coincidentaly, the novel or subject of the Dresden firebombings didn’t need any sort of recorded history by way of Vonnegut until more than 20 years later, at the height of a war with Vietnam.  What was said about the senselesness of the Dresden firebombings can also be said about the entire Vietnam war.  We entered Vietnam on the premise of communism containment, and proceeded to lose thousands of needless lives before deciding that we need not concern ourselves with policing the world.  It is because of this connection of the senseless nature of both events that Vonnegut chooses Dresden as his vehicle for addressing Vietnam.

This novel is difficult to pinpoint the author’s exact motivation for writing.  I didn’t get the cautionary vibe, and it was written in a omniscent perspective, where the storyteller Billy Pilgrim new all of what was happening around him.  I feel I need to draw a distinction between what I feel Vonnegut’s stance toward war is, and what part of war he has a problem with.  As I stated in my blog previously, I think Vonegut’s true feelings are reflected thru the Tralfamadore’s, who believe that their will always be war, and it’s better to focus on the good times and just know their will be bad as well.

I find it strange that, given the specific events in SH5 and the subject matter the novel was addressing concerning Vietnam, that the novel completely errors on the soft side as far a recounting events go.  We were asked to pick an affect, so I would like to address the pervading mood throughout the novel.  Billy Pilgrim is able to keep his spirits high even in the midst of his hardship’s.  Billy has a daughter who is overbearing, has seen much death, been in a plane crash, witnessed the Dresden bombing while being a prisoner of war, was subjected to horribly inhumane treatment on his quest, and on top of all that was abducted by aliens.  Yet through all of these events, Billy has a steady calm about his demeanor.

Let’s talk about the Tralfamadorian’s, who’s race allows them to see in 4 dimensions.  In SH5, being able to see in 4 dimensions and swing sporadically through time were never veiwed as inconvenient, however seeing in only human 3 dimensions was seen as restricted.  I will attempt to draw the connection between Vonnegut’s experience in Dresden, and the added perspective (4th dimension) needed to understand the difference between necessary and unnecessary war.  Maybe this concept goes hand in hand with Billy Pilgrims profession of Optmetry.  Vonnegut/Pilgrim take it upon themselves to help people understand the overall meaning of war.

Response 2

When I think of the word “experience” I tend to think that this is the series of events that happen to us during the course of our lives.  In the case of a novel, it’s the individual events, revealed in the narrative discourse, that forms an “experience”.  I can’t remember whether we actually talked about this directly in class or wether this is my own idea, but an experience never actually takes place until you recollect it into a narration.  Many times, as in Plath’s novel “The Bell Jar”, the series of events, or narrative discourse, are not really related to each other.  They take place over a series of months and are, much of the time, seemingly unrelated.  However, “The Bell Jar” is referred to as being experiential.  We wouldn’t have any comprehension of her experience except she reveals it to us through narration, making the “experience” real for us.

Plath creates a solid parellel between her own life experiences and those experiences that Esther lives in the novel.  With referential function, and the knowledge that this is not an autobiography, Plath is able to create an experience for the reader, similar to what she was feeling when she wrote the novel, without necessarily being constrained to her “experience”.  To me, The Bell Jar is more about mental illness in general than it is about Sylvia Plath’s personal life.  Abbott refers to what he refers to as fictional truth.  This is not truth in fact, but in meaning.  After learning a couple of things about Sylvia Plath’s life, The Bell Jar is very close to some of the things happening in Plath’s life.  Plath, like Esther, attended an all girls school, once dated a man from Yale which is represented in Buddy Willard, once broke her leg, had a scholarship sponsor, and was rejected from a summer course that she really wanted.

I really think the discussion that was started during class about Joan being created as a sort of alternative to Esther.  Esther describes Joan as being like her in some ways, but was more of a dark outline of her own thoughts and feelings.  I think it was very relevant whoever said that Plath was in a way distinguishing two possible courses for her own life.  Esther endures her shock treatments, is able to conquer her indecisions when she decides to lose her virginity, and eventually moves back to school.  We are left with Esther on the doorstep of her meeting with her Doctors to see if she could be released.  Although we are not given the outcome of the meeting, the book ends with the impression the meeting will go well and she will be released.  On the other hand, we have Joan who at first shows rapid signs of improvement, but eventually regresses and ends up hanging herself.  This is the other possible direction Plath’s life could go.

Gatsby Response 1

The Great Gatsby is a narrative told through the eyes of the character Nick Carraway.  Fitzgerald does an excellent job crafting TGG in a way that allows you to see the events being played out before you, but only to a point.  He uses a number of devices, such as distance (Nick writing The Great Gastby a full year after the events have transpired) to keep the story moving at a reasonable pace.  This allows Fitzgerald to leave out unimportant details of the summer, under the pretense of being a full year removed from the incidences.  I was not able to find the exact page, but in one point in the narrative discourse, Nick says that he doesn’t want to give the impression that the events were all that happened during the summer, just that the events were the only things worth talking about.  Fitzgerald also creates some unanswerable questions through the use of focalization.  Nick is our focalizer, meaning we are only able to see the events through Nicks point of view.  This is similar to how we get things in real life, making the book more relatable.  An example of this was after the accident which killed Myrtle Wilson, Daisy and Tom were observed having a conversation through their window by Gatsby and Nick.  Fitzgerald doesn’t provide us with an omniscient view of what is going on because we would not normally be able to here through windows.  This conversation, consequently raises lots of questions as to the conclusion of the book.  Was Tom explaining to Daisy what he new about the car and did Daisy know of Tom’s intentions to sell Gatsby out to Mr Wilson?

I’d also like to comment on character development, and flat vs round characters.  I would describe most of the main characters in TGG as being intentionally flattened.  Each of the characters is serving a purpose in the narrative which, if Fitzgerald would have chosen to create more rounded characters (specifically in Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby), he would have lost some of the satirical elements of the novel.  Abbott has a discussion about “types” in chapter 10, using labels like “the strong mother”, “the good Samaritan”, and “the nerd”.  These types in effect flatten the character because it pre-establishes an identity, somewhat clouding our ability as readers to let the character take his/her full shape.  I believe, though not explicitly written, that Abbott is suggesting that people in real life are perfectly round characters. It occurred to me in class on Wednesday that the opposite is true; the only true place a character can be round is in a fictional narrative, and even then not perfectly round.  You see, in real life, people will always be constricted by their personalities.  In fiction however, an author can always create another dynamic in his character to continually make him rounder.  To conclude, can a character ever be perfectly round? No, there is no threshold where the author cannot simply add another motif to a character to further the anomaly.