In the second chapter, the trip that Oedipa had to “San Narciso” is narrated. San Narciso is in Southern California, in accordance to the book, fact which made me think that San Narciso is in fact a mockery towards San Francisco. “San Narciso lay further south, near L.A. Like many places in California it was less an identifiable city than a grouping of concepts…” (Pynchon pg. 13). Continuing, the speaker starts to describe San Narciso through Oedipa’s eyes: “But if there was any vital difference between it and the rest of Southern California, it was invisible on first glance.” (Pynchon pg. 14). With this I really don’t know what Pynchon means, is he trying to state that every American city is the same dull unattractive place? Why San Francisco /Narciso? I really want to grasp the hidden answer of these questions as I read more of the book.
The speaker also mentions Southern California’s, always through Oedipa’s eyes, dull impact on every newcomer. In accordance to Oedipa, the city causes the same impact that she received when changing a transistor’s radio battery.
The ordered swirl of houses and streets, from this high angle, sprang at her now with the same unexpected, astonishing clarity as the circuit card had. Though she knew even less about radios than about Southern Californians, there were to both outward patterns a hieroglyphic sense of concealed meaning, of an intent to communicate. (Pynchon pg. 14).
There’d seemed no limit to what the printed circuit could have told her (if she had tried to find out); so in her first minute of San Narciso, a revelation also trembled just past the threshold of her understanding… she and her Chevy seemed parked at the centre of an odd, religious instant. (Pynchon pg. 14).
The fact that the city had a “concealed meaning, of an intent to communicate” is a very singular thing to state in a city’s description. Maybe, Pynchon was trying to point out the excessive signs and advertisements that the American cities have due to capitalism. And if this is so, this will definitely confirm my theory of him being a procommunist.
“She and her Chevy seemed parked at the centre of an odd, religious moment”, why not a moment? Why a religious moment? Or, jus why religious? Is Pynchon trying to say that every single aspect in society has some connection or relation with religion? Is this just an enjambment made by Pynchon to try to show how just every single aspect in the present has to do with religion. For example, even the most concrete facts of science, such as the present theories of evolution, have discords with the influence that religion has made on society. Well, due to religion, a teacher in the 1920´s (Scope) was fined with 100 dollars for teaching evolution in his science class. Or maybe Pynchon being a complete atheist, tried to mock how a revelation in religion is just a blurry and painful “vision”. “Smog hung all round the horizon, the sun on the bright beige countryside was painful; she and the Chevy seemed parked at the centre of an odd, religious instant.
Miles Song
Too fat to Frug,
That’s what you tell me all the time,
When you really try’n’ to put me down,
I’m hip,
So close you big fat lip,
Yeah, baby,
I may be too fat to Frug,
But at least I ain’t to slim to Swim. (Pynchon pg. 16).
Come on! I have to say it, Miles song is a disgrace to music; however, I believe this song has a big meaning behind it. In my opinion, Pynchon was trying to imitate the meaningless songs that play in the presents, and, although they sound good and have a great beat, they are a shame. Or, isn’t “The Candy Shop” by Fifty Cent an obscene meaningless song?
Ha ha ha ha ha, Pynchon really made me laugh when he makes the comparison of an actor and a lawyer. “Me, I’m a former actor who became a lawyer.” (Pynchon pg. 22). This small statement clearly reflects who the speaker sees lawyers as hypocrites, and false, just like actors. Well, actors constantly play roles of other people in the movies, making them seem as false people, or even hypocrites, just like the speaker sees the lawyers of the present. This comparison made me laugh, because many private, rich lawyers do have this reputation.
As I continue this great novel, I hope that my questions are answered, and I do expect more satire about society (especially American).
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