The Crying of Lot 49`

I think that in this novel the postal service is probably that biggest and most important motif. Also, the postal service signifies strength and authority and also clearly communication. The need for communication has made the postal service so important because a country would fall apart without it. I think that Pynchon used the postal service because of its importance and prestige in any country and a postal system of some kind has been around for centuries and will be necessary forever. Though we don't really notice it as much any more because of email and other technology postal service is what keeps a country running in some aspects because it is needed to keep each part of the country connected. Also everyone knows and understands the basics of the postal service so Pynchon could keep his readers attention because they can agree with his use of the postal service so the motif is not as random as it seems. As I've mentioned before Thomas Pynchon writes very authoritatively and so the powerful postal service fits in perfectly with the authors writing style.

Oedipa on the other hand is the opposite, she is very curious and flamboyant but not arrogant. She becomes obsessed by the idea of the Tristero and the underground postal service that she will go to all measures to investigate. I think its clever how the author links Pierce Inverarity to the Tristero by having knowledgeable people working on one of the dead man's properties or by having a secret stamp collection. Also it was creative how the author brought the Tristero to the United states thanks to immigration and Oedipa's curiosity helped us learn about it. I think that this book was very creative but complicated. The quirky characters may be the author making fun of real people like Oedipa could be the author's exaggeration of the fact that people always have to have answers. Mucho could represent uninterested society, The Paranoids could be The Beatles or other well known bands of the time, they would be the ones that are oblivious because of their obsession with music, drugs and women. I think that The Paranoids are just for entertaining purposes because they don't have much of a role in the book. All of the author's characters are extremely exaggerated to give the book a humorous effect.

One thing that I still find a bit confusing is my Pierce Inverarity named Oedipa as the executor of his estate if they had broken up? This may mean that he still had feelings for her or maybe he added her into his will before they had broken up, either way this was essential to make the thicken. I also noticed that there was the Peter Pinguid Society, I didn't quite understand it's importance at the beginning but now I think that this may have been one of the ways that the Tristero spread. With a group of unhappy people ready for change they create a society and make their own rules so this is a modern day expansion of the Tristero postal service. Even the play "The Courier's Tragedy" is real and it is thanks to this play that Oedipa discovers the story of the Tristero and the Thurn and Taxis empire. I'm surprised and how many facts Pynchon incorporates in his fictional novel.

"The Crying of Lot 49" is a very long and difficult book when you want to analyze it because it written very metaphorically and the challenge for the reader is to discover what the author really wants to tell us. Thomas Pynchon is a very clever author and his book is extremely dense which makes it very challenging. There can be so many interpretations of each character the setting that it is hard to find a correct answer. I think it is genius how Pynchon writes his books so mysteriously even though it can be frustrating and I think it would be interesting to read an analytical essay on the book, that kind of writing would help me understand the book better. I don't believe that I am knowledgeable enough to fully understand Pynchon's allegories. "The Crying of Lot 49" is probably one of the most difficult books that I've read.