{"id":13,"date":"2005-09-05T14:49:52","date_gmt":"2005-09-05T18:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/2005\/09\/05\/repetition\/"},"modified":"2005-09-05T14:49:52","modified_gmt":"2005-09-05T18:49:52","slug":"repetition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/2005\/09\/05\/repetition\/","title":{"rendered":"Repetition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\tThe issue of the circular nature of narrative in The Crying of Lot 49 <\/em> is poignantly addressed in Carolyn\u2019s posting. I am specifically referring to the passage she cites, and then expounds through a closer reading of not just the content of the conversation, but the implications that such a circular though has not only in the book, but also as a mode of explication for the author. Carolyn writes, \u201cIn this passage, Pynchon could be seen as pointing out that all the basic storylines have been done, so they will just continue to repeat themselves. It\u2019s the challenge of the creator to bring something new to them.\u201d The idea that a conversation between two characters is not only a vehicle for moving plot, but is also a comment on the form of narrative and ways that an author addresses issues of originality, is one that looks at the text as something other and more than the text itself.
\n\tAlong those lines, and working with the question of narrative form in postmodern works, I would like to address the issue of repetition. In Don DeLillo\u2019s story \u201cComing Sun. Mon. Tues.\u201d my immediate reaction to repetition and the use of \u201cor\u201d to indicate place and time is to view that as an indication of the arbitrariness of such details (where the characters are) and the implications of such an approach. DeLillo writes, describing the abortionist, \u201cHe has a moustache and long, elegant fingers\u201d (392). Then a few sentences later describes a series of tall men, \u201cHe is interviewed by a series of tall men with elegant fingers\u201d (392). Repetition is a literary device that can emphasize and draw attention. In excess, repetition can indicate the arbitrary nature of what is being repeated. I don\u2019t think that in the case of the men with \u201clong elegant fingers\u201d in DeLillo\u2019s story or the repetition in the circularity of Pynchon\u2019s narrative indicates arbitrariness of what is being described, but instead as in Andy Warhol\u2019s Campell\u2019s Soup Cans, repetition allows the audience to decipher which of the elements, literary or artistic, are interchangeable, and which cannot stand one without the other and the other, in order to call attention to the object, person, thing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The issue of the circular nature of narrative in The Crying of Lot 49 is poignantly addressed in Carolyn\u2019s posting. I am specifically referring to the passage she cites, and then expounds through a closer reading of not just the content of the conversation, but the implications that such a circular though has not only … Continue reading Repetition<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2005\/660\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}