I would like to address Pynchon\u2019s choice of Oedipa Maas. Interestingly, Pynchon chose to center his story on the experiences and investigations of a housewife before the Feminist movement. Indicative of the time in which the story was written, Oedipa is a housewife; however, Oedipa does much more than the average housewife usually would. Yes, the story begins with her return home from a Tupperware party, but her role as protagonist serves as that of a detective, even an amateur scholar. Then again, she is the product of her experiences, in some ways, and so are others in the story, particularly women.<\/p>\n
For example, Oedipa does not ask nor does she expect to be the executor of Pierce\u2019s estate, nor does she choose many of her experiences in the book. <\/span>Even the Remedios Varo painting in Mexico which makes Oedipa cry under \u201cher dark green bubble shades\u201d depicts \u201ca number of girls with heart-shaped faces, huge eyes, spun-gold hair, prisoners in the top room of a circular tower, embroidering a kind of tapestry which spilled out the slit windows and into a void, seeking hopelessly to fill the void\u201d (21). <\/span>The women in the painting are stuck, prisoners, trying to \u201cfill the void\u201d that, one could argue, is their lives. <\/span>This calls to mind the Jameson article and his assessment of Postmodern art, particularly Munch\u2019s The Scream <\/em>which Jameson says \u201cdeconstructs its own aesthetic of expression, all the while remaining imprisoned within it \u201c(62). <\/span>The same mediation occurs with the art within art in the Varo painting and in Oedipa\u2019s interpretation of their hopeless attempt to \u201cfill the void.\u201d <\/span>Both Oedipa and the women in the painting are, in part if not completely, helpless and powerless, but at the same time, they are working to fill some void or in Oedipa\u2019s case, to deduce a potentially arbitrary and nonexistent mystery.<\/p>\n Todd Kelly and Professor Sample both commented on Oedipa\u2019s name, and Professor Sample suggested we consider the implications of the last name \u201cMaas\u201d in terms of the Spanish term for \u201cmore\u201d (\u201cmas\u201d). <\/span>As Oedipa tries to make sense of the postal service, the stamps, and the horns, among other things, she is demonstrating her almost insatiable curiosity about life. <\/span>As opposed to the passivity I discussed above, in most of the book, Oedipa exercises control and power over herself (and sometimes her surroundings) as she resourcefully attempts to make sense of the seeming senseless \u201cmystery.\u201d <\/span>She is going out into the world, away from her husband in particular (and after her own mystery, her own role as the executor of the estate) and discovering a complicated set of connections that to others have often overlooked.<\/p>\n On the other hand, Oedipa\u2019s encounters are often mediated by other associations, often seemingly random associations, a fact which indicates some passivity in her experiences. <\/span>Furthermore, both we, the readers, and Oedipa are left waiting for the anonymous bidder of Lot 49. <\/span>The story ends with Oedipa waiting, which can be interpreted as both passive and active, but also leaves a void, a mystery unsolved, for the reader which makes the experience itself almost seem fruitless.<\/p>\n I do not, despite what I have written, find the novel or Oedipa\u2019s role in the novel to be depressing or desperate. <\/span>On the contrary, I see Oedipa as revolutionary as a character; her curiosity and deftness in uncovering the traces of a mystery (though not the entire mystery) reveal a new kind of Postmodern female. <\/span>I would argue that Postmodernism, as Jameson explains, has more to do with fragmentation than the alienation so important to Modernism, and thus, it is not Oedipa\u2019s alienation as a character (though she is depicted as very lonely at times) or her inability to solve this mystery which holds her back, but rather, the fragmented story she is trying to piece together.\u00a0 It is almost necessary to Postmodernism that the story remain fragmented rather than whole or complete or even solved; thus, Oedipa is left perpetually waiting for “more” or “Maas”, and her story is never quite finished.<\/p>\n I have much more I want to discuss concerning Oedipa, in particular, but I will save some of that for class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I would like to address Pynchon\u2019s choice of Oedipa Maas. Interestingly, Pynchon chose to center his story on the experiences and investigations of a housewife before the Feminist movement. Indicative of the time in which the story was written, Oedipa is a housewife; however, Oedipa does much more than the average housewife usually would. Yes, … Continue reading Oedipa “More”- A Postmodern Protagonist<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[15,120,26,34],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pynchon","tag-jameson","tag-pynchon","tag-race","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105"}],"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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions\/107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}