The Crying of Lot 49: Part 1

While I can't offer any interpretation anywhere near equal to Kailie's, I can offer my opinion about the book thus far.

The language of the book flows so well that it is easily mistaken as an easy read. However, there are so many references and quirky details that take a second or two to absorb that it ends up being a much more complex novel than it first seems.

I'm left trying to figure out why Oedipa is such a floozy. Why does she so easily get drunk and have sex with this cheesy Metzger guy? Is she unhappy with her marriage to Mucho or is she just a slut? How much of this has really happened? Scott mentioned that there's a lot of moments in the book that may or may not have occurred. Thanks to this, I've been questioning everything that has happened thus far. Did she really have relations with Inverarity? Has he really died? Is this all some fictional story within a story? I really have no idea.

Another thing Kailie mentioned was that a friend of hers said this book is primarily about reading into literature. This makes sense to me as I read it. You can sense the author purposefully makes the story hard to believe. The names and places and goings-on are borderline ridiculous. But this causes us to have to look deeper into it. Why the hell is her psychiatrist's name Dr. Hilarious? How should I know?

One particular image I really enjoyed was that of Oedipa as a sort of false Rapunzel. The image of her long hair turning out to be a wig was really striking to me and is another great example of Pynchon's point that nothing can be taken for face value. I've also noticed how many funny little tricks are hidden throughout the book, like the particularly named KCUF radio station. I'm interested to see how these little things all come together in the grander plot.