The Crying of Lot 49 written by Thomas Pynchon was written in the beginning of the 20th century, it holds true to its time period by focusing on aspects of the human mind and experiences. There are two levels of apprehension to The Crying of Lot 49: that of the characters in the book, whose perception is limited to the text, and that of the reader, who has the ability to look at the world from an external point of view. A recurring theme in the novel is the phenomenon of chaos, also called entropy. Both the reader and Oedipa have the same tribulations of facing the chaos that surrounds them. Through various methods, Pynchon imposes a fictional world already full of turmoil on the reader. As readers, we are faced with similar uncertainties and complications of the mystery that the characters are involved in. As the mysteries unfold, an understanding of the characters may lead to an understanding of our own self-image.

Oedipa Mass, just like us is forced to either involve herself in the deciphering of clues or not to participate at all in what she suspects to be a conspiracy. Her role is comparable to the role of Maxwell’s Demon. “As the De

Pynchon uses many different techniques which all serves to unite the reader’s quest for a literary meaning with Oedipa’s quest for self-discovery in the end. Oedipa’s self- discovery then leads to our own self-discovery. One major link that combines the readers with Oedipa as mentioned before, is the state of paranoia. Throughout the novel, we will reach many conclusions, which we might later realize to be false. Our inability to decipher symbols relates to Oedipa’s inability to decipher the truth amongst her own world of chaos. In both cases, we need to increase the communicative entropy of our world. Nonetheless, The Crying of Lot 49 succeeds in actively involving the reader within the mysteries of the text, thus we can learn something about ourselves as we discover what Oedipa learns of herself.

Pynchon also uses many metaphors, which reveals the relationship between the author and the reader in The Crying of Lot 49. The most obvious one is the name of the protagonist, Oedipa Maas, which elicits the famous Greek riddle solver Oedipus, whose quest to interpret the Delphic prophecies leads to his own downfall. Oedipa Mass also evokes the reader to think of Newton’s laws, where Oedipa is acted upon by the gravity of her surroundings. An object, once put in motion, as Oedipa is when she is named executrix of a will, tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. There exists two possibilities when we are presented with these metaphors: either that they are clues which may lead to the meaning of The Crying of Lot 49, or they were purposely set up by the author to deceive us. Pynchon leaves much of his novel up to interpretation, which helps lead the reader’s open up his or her own mind. In the latter case, we may find that the novel has no direct meaning, but an indirect message questioning the very existence of meaning. This leads to the next uniting factor, paranoia.

One aspect that unites Oedipa and the audience is the state of paranoia. Unlike the Maxwell’s Demon, inside a closed system, the reader and Oedipa are exposed to Pynchon’s fictional system, which is constantly expanding to include more and more aspects of contemporary America. Being inefficient sorters, both the reader and Oedipa are in a state of confusion, or paranoia. Paranoia, not defined

Some topics in this essay:
Maxwell’s Demon, Oedipa Mass, Thomas Pynchon, Courier’s Tragedy”, Pierce Inverarity, Tragedy” Oedipa, Stressing Oedipa’s, Thurn Taxis, Thurn Taxis”p96, Pierce Inveraity, crying 49, reader oedipa, pierce inverarity, maxwell’s demon, involving reader, serves unite, unite reader’s, oedipa mass, courier’s tragedy”, inability decipher,