It’s quiet in here, so I thought I’d make a quick post about the dramatic and lyrical scene in which Oedipa meets the old sailor during her long dark night of the soul. She imagines the old sailor’s passing, a fiery death in which his mattress burns up around him like a funeral pyre. When the sailor is lost to us, we no longer have access to “the quantity of hallucination belonging to just the sailor” (95). Subjective perception — hallucination — is the hallmark of distinctive human life. And the change in time (dt) is the supplanting of one hallucination by another until all record of it is lost in death. The Crying of Lot 49 is in some sense an examination of hallucinations as they increase their pace, Oedipa flitting from one hypothesis to another. In the end, what seems most troubling to Oedipa is that each passing hallucination is a loss of life, that ‘change in time’ is actually the loss of the specific delirium that is both innocence and stability. At the risk of beginning a categorical Modernism/Postmodernism debate, I’d say this episode in the novel pursues its alienation in a more ‘modernist’ way than many other sections. But now it’s time for bed. See you all tomorrow.
One thought on “Change in Time”
Comments are closed.
Josh, you will have to expand on this in class, for I don’t know that I agree (perhaps I simply don’t understand). Dealing with themes of loss of innocence and alienation (I assume you are linking the work to T.S. Elliot-esque imagery) isn’t necessarily a hallmark of Modernism or Postmodernism. The telling feature may be how the characters come out on the other end. (i.e. Holden Caulfield laments his inability to erase the word “Fuck” or be a “catcher” in the rye. Yet, he lets his sister reach for the brass ring at the end without trying to save her. Eliot’s Prufrock doesn’t dare to eat the peach. In other words, the characters have changed as a result of their alienation.)
The real test here is whether or not Oedipa has been affected by her hallucinatory journeys. She may not have solved the mystery, but (to borrow a film metaphor) has her character “arced” at all? Some critics claim that she has evolved as a result of her journey (i.e. the false pregnancy, her self reliance.) This, more than the themes (for I’m sure we both can think of a dozen PoMo characters that are alienated and disenchanted), would align Pynchon with the modernists.
If I misunderstood your post, a thousand apologies.