Review of The Crying of Lot 49

After some class discussion I realized that I missed the fact that the novel was a satire and didn't understand many of Pynchon's complex jokes. He uses the post as his main theme because it is powerful and authoritative and this puts him at a level where he can make fun of people and society. Through the complex structure and vocabulary the novel "The Crying of Lot 49" is not as heavy as one thinks while they read, the crazy characters and made up setting proves that the book hasn't been made to be taken seriously but instead to entertain while weaving and intricate and relevant novel using history and fiction.

Class dicussions have given me more insight into the story and I realized that the Thurn and Taxis empire and postal service really did exist wich opened a new point of view for me. This proved to me that with Pynchon's sarcastic and confusing writing style it is very hard to distinguish lies from the truth. On the other hand Tristero is Pynchon's invention but since he either makes his writing very believable or a complete joke I was ready to believe that it existed. This fact and fiction factor made the book more difficult for me since I'm very gullible and would take the authors knowledge for granted. I think that it is very important to destinguish fact from fiction especially in novels but Pynchon's writing style is so matter-of-factly that he assumes his readers know exactly what he is talking about. I think it is very interesting how he uses outside information and incorporates it into a completely fictional novel. I'm wondering if maybe he does this to add a more realistic factor to the novel and make his plot more believable, either way it can be entertaining but at times very confusing.