The Crying of Lot 49 - Pynchon

After reading the first two chapters of Thomas Pynchon’s novel The Crying of Lot 49, I began to wonder why exactly the author chose to represent his main character as a neurotic housewife who views every aspect of her world as a re-representation of something that is far from the actual object itself.  There are several instances of these visions that Oedipa has throughout these first two chapters, in addition to her tearful experience with the painting.  These scenes are specifically interesting because the reason behind Pynchon’s delving into Oedipa’s psyche remain unclear.

Her hallucination in bed immediately before she answers Dr. Hilarius’ call is one of the first clues we are given with regard to Oedipa’s visual fixation and her inability to control it.  Pynchon writes, “Hanging in the air above her bed she now beheld the well-known portrait of Uncle that appears in front of all of our post offices, his eyes gleaming unhealthily, his sunken yellow cheeks most violently rouged, his finger pointing between her eyes” (7).  The sheet metal nymph advertising Echo Courts prompts Oedipa to take pause and consider this rather suggestive entrance.  To her, “she was smiling a lipsticked and public smile, not quite a hooker’s but nowhere near that of any nymph pining away with love either (15).  As Oedipa looks down upon the suburban sprawl of San Narciso, she reflects upon how this pattern of housing “like a well-tended crop” reminds her of a printed circuit that she once saw on the inside of a transistor radio.  Pynchon writes, “The ordered swirl of house and streets, from this high angle, sprang at her now with the same unexpected, astonishing clarity as the circuit card had” (13).  Detailing her first encounter with Pierce’s attorney, Pynchon writes, “That night the lawyer Metzger showed up.  He turned out to be so good-looking that Oedipa thought that They, somebody up there, were putting her on” (16).  Yet later she criticizes his unfit physique, “She came back to find Metzger wearing only a pair of boxer shorts and fast asleep with a hardon and his head under the couch.  She noticed also a fat stomach the suit had hidden” (26).

Clearly Oedipa’s fixation on the visual is meant to reveal more than we can discern thus far.  I would assume that this healthy imagination and attention to detail will help her make greater and more important discoveries later on, and her chronic melancholy will enhance rather than hinder her investigative mind.  I wonder whether Pynchon intends for the reader to pick up on this acute sense of Oedipa’s in order for us to better connect the dots right along with her as his narrative unfolds, or if this is merely a continuation of his mocking any attempt at deriving deeper meaning from a thorough literary interpretation.