{"id":85,"date":"2009-02-02T21:25:35","date_gmt":"2009-02-03T02:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/?p=85"},"modified":"2009-02-02T21:25:35","modified_gmt":"2009-02-03T02:25:35","slug":"the-problem-with-certainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/?p=85","title":{"rendered":"The problem with certainty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0I must admit to being a little dazed after completing\u00a0The Crying Lot of 49. \u00a0<\/em>What is a reader to make of symbols of postal horns appearing in windows of \u00a0herbalists in Chinatown, or children who have sketched them on sidewalks, or on the bathroom stalls, or in the corners of stamps? \u00a0I think I am just as confused as Oedipa as to whether or not there is a secret conspiracy to suppress Tristero\/Trystero or if it is all a hoax? \u00a0Clearly, this is one of Pynchon’s points. \u00a0<\/p>\n

It seems that everywhere Oedipa turns, she encounters uncertainty regarding The Tristero. After she meets with Mr. Thoth and sees the WASTE symbol on his ring, she is compelled to tell Fallopian. \u00a0“‘You think it’s really a correlation?’ \u00a0She thought of how tenuous it was, like a long white hair, over a century long. \u00a0Two very old men. \u00a0All these fatigued brain cells between herself and the truth” (74). \u00a0 Chasing after leads, Oedipa tracks down the missing line in the “Whitchapel” fragment, only to find out later that that version is corrupt according to\u00a0professor\u00a0of English at Cal, Emory Bortz. \u00a0Then there is the concidential (?) meeting of Arnold Snarb who dons the WASTE symbol on his lapel pin, but he uses it as a symbol of his membership in I.A. or Inamorati Anonymous. It is Arnold who Oedipa contacts at the end of the novel, who now seems to be involved in The Tristero\u00a0after all. \u00a0Even Dr. Hilarious’s experiments with LSD and other drugs on suburban housewives like Oepida seem to give rise to the question of whether or not she is involved in a larger plot against her. \u00a0Ironically, Hilarious preformed experiments of induced insanity–certainly calling into question Hilarious’s own sanity. \u00a0 \u00a0In the end, he too is silenced by the “cops.”<\/p>\n

As the novel progresses Oedipa appears to question this idea of truth and certainty more frequently. \u00a0“Oedipa wondered \u00a0whether, at the end of this (if it were supposed to end), she too might not be left with only compiled memories of clues, announcements, intimations, but never the central truth itself[…]” (76). \u00a0The notion that she is in a dream continues to appear, as Oedipa encounters more clues. \u00a0Leaving her to “have trouble sorting the night into real and dreamed” (95). \u00a0When her perception of reality fails her, she is left to test reality through touch. \u00a0When the sailor throws a letter at her in the hallway, “she was overcome all at once by a need to touch him, as if she could not believe in him, or would not remember him, without it” (102). \u00a0Poor Oedipa. What is she to make of all of this? \u00a0Her notion of certainty has been turned upside down. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The notion of certainty seems to be the pivotal idea when discussing the difference between modern literature and postmodern literature. \u00a0The modernists– Eliot and the like– established New Criticism in hopes of identifying one meaning in a text. \u00a0Hemingway wrote in\u00a0excruciating\u00a0detail about certainty with stories about the practical– how to fish for trout or watch a bullfight. \u00a0Whereas in postmodernism, nothing is certain. \u00a0Fact and fiction are one in the same. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Just for kicks, I looked up up the Thurn und Taxis family and it turns out they have their own website. \u00a0Click the link below.<\/p>\n

\u00a0http:\/\/www.thurnundtaxis.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Don’t skip the intro that contains pictures of their palace. \u00a0You can even rent out the dining room to throw a private party. \u00a0In addition, the current Prince turns out to be a 25-year-old who loves to race Lamborghinis. \u00a0Here is a picture of him. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"fuerst-albert_01\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0I must admit to being a little dazed after completing\u00a0The Crying Lot of 49. \u00a0What is a reader to make of symbols of postal horns appearing in windows of \u00a0herbalists in Chinatown, or children who have sketched them on sidewalks, or on the bathroom stalls, or in the corners of stamps? \u00a0I think I am … Continue reading The problem with certainty<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[120,26,35],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pynchon","tag-pynchon","tag-race","tag-reality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions\/92"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}