{"id":100,"date":"2009-02-03T16:16:29","date_gmt":"2009-02-03T21:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/?p=100"},"modified":"2009-02-03T16:17:56","modified_gmt":"2009-02-03T21:17:56","slug":"100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/?p=100","title":{"rendered":"Constructed Reality in The cRying of Lot 49"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 An entire genre of fiction has been inspired by theories from postmodern philosophers such as Derrida, Lacan, and Sassure.\u00a0 One of the theories proposed by postmodern philosophy is that human reality is linguistically constructed, a construction that is based on cultural narratives that are human products with human histories.\u00a0 For example, Sassure went against the dominant language theory (correspondence theory) and stated that the signifier is not equivalent to the thing being signified.\u00a0 Lacan also advocated the notion of the transcendental signified.\u00a0 In Thomas Pynchon’s Crying of Lot 49<\/em> the main character attempts to make sense out of the vast amount of cultural narratives, but she is left with less clarity then when\u00a0she began.\u00a0\u00a0Pynchon is\u00a0specifically calling attention to\u00a0narratives created by the global capital system.\u00a0 In Oedipa’s case, the more information the she\u00a0uncovers, the\u00a0closer she moves to a\u00a0fragmented consciousness.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Pynchon’s text reacts to aspects of the global capital system, such as economic policy.\u00a0 Adam Smith’s text “Natural Laws of Economics,” along with the “Wealth of Nations,” theorized that economic policy was guided by an “invisible hand.”\u00a0 Pynchon deconstructs this narrative along with several others by parodying the system as Oedipa attempts to make sense of the connections within the Inveriarity Empire.\u00a0 Inveriarity becomes a symbol for the global capital system, which is exemplified by the systems all encompassing power.\u00a0 One of Oedipa’s first encounter’s with Metzger emphasizes this power: “What the hell didn’t he own?” (Pynchon 27).\u00a0 Oedipa tries to find an underlying truth behind the system, but the more she uncovers the more she realizes how incoherent all of the narratives are.\u00a0 When Oedipa describes her experience viewing the painting “Bordando el Manto Terrestre” the failure of her quest is foreshadowed.\u00a0 Oedipa tries, like the painting, to embroider the tapestry of the world:<\/p>\n

“…embroidering a kind of tapestry which spilled out the slit windows and into a void, seeking hopelessly to fill the void: for all the other buildings and creatures, all the waves, ships and forests of the earth were contained in this tapestry, and the tapestry was the world.” (Pynchon 11)<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The painting calls attention to the fact that reality is a human construction.\u00a0 Oedipa attempts to construct reality by tying together all of the narratives surrounding Inveriarity.\u00a0 However, the more narratives she consumes, the more fragmented the story becomes, finally offering no closure.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The end of Pynchon’s text parodies the global capital system by comparing economic theory to religion: “Passerine spread his arms in a gesture that seemed to belong to the priesthood of some remote culture; perhaps a descending angel” (Pynchon 152).\u00a0 Pynchon wants to compare these two narratives because they are both human constructions of reality.\u00a0 Adam Smith’s metaphor for an “invisible hand” compares to a metaphor for god.\u00a0 They both describe an unknown being in control of events.\u00a0 Oedipa continues to give into the hope that the narratives are cohesive, but she and the reader are left with no closure: “He stared at her, smiling, as if saying, I’m surprised you actually came” (152).\u00a0 Pynchon establishes the end of Oedipa’s quest as a failure.\u00a0 Instead of rejecting the narratives, she continues to believe that they will somehow tie together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 An entire genre of fiction has been inspired by theories from postmodern philosophers such as Derrida, Lacan, and Sassure.\u00a0 One of the theories proposed by postmodern philosophy is that human reality is linguistically constructed, a construction that is based on cultural narratives that are human products with human histories.\u00a0 For example, Sassure went against … Continue reading Constructed Reality in The cRying of Lot 49<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[120,35,30,29],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pynchon","tag-pynchon","tag-reality","tag-signified","tag-signifier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}