In The Mood

The first two chapters of The Crying Of Lot 49 present increasing absurdity. It is almost like recent horror films, where you never know what to expect, including extreme humor in the midst of terror. At first one might not catch on to all of the absurdity presented by Thomas Pynchon, but it is soon that, even if you can’t define the reasons, the text become a story out of normal parameters. Besides the introductory problems and contexts, the novel works like a Colombian soap opera, where parallel plots and intentions between characters spark up confusion if one is not a constant viewer.

I can’t help to wonder the purpose of these absurdities as I read the novel, but I assume I am too early on to make any reasonable conclusions. Absurdity, apart from its required inclusion in satire, can fulfill many roles in a novel, including grabbing the reader’s attention. When reading absurd plotlines, like when listening to absurd jokes, one must be completely focused to “get it.” To set an example, when we read “small office buildings and factories whose addresses were in the 70 and then 80,000’s (15),” it is not really important to understand the number as to produce a perfect mental image in mathematical concepts, but rather to catch meanings behind absurd events. If I were to tell you my address contained a number in the seventy thousands, would you take me seriously? Of course not! You would definitely accept it as a joke, or in an absurd case, take me as an ignorant. That is exactly why absurdity in text requires a different reading, for it is far from literal. Be expecting the joke, even if it seems like it is all a big joke: maybe that’s part of the message.

When reading science one can trust the text to come across as it is worded exactly, and that is fine. When reading history you may check on the author, and further information given you shall take as true for its literal reproduction. The previous are fine in their context, but this novel is definitely far apart from science or history, even if they appear as themes of the absurdity. It will all come down to mood. The success in reading and comprehending the satire in the pages to come depends on my disposition and correct mood when reading: hunt down the messages and untie the absurdity, but don’t disregard it.