The Muted Horn Symbol in Pynchons The Crying of Lot 49
The horn is a symbol of alerta signal of calling one to attention that a message of importance might be communicated. In Pynchons The Crying of Lot 49, the protagonist Oedipa is spurred on by the symbol of a muted horna sign that suggests the opposite: no message is coming; nothing of any significance will be communicated. The message perhaps is that there is no meaning to be received. In a postmodern world, post-truth is what best describes the character of the culture. The world has moved beyond respect for truth; now it is enraptured by the enveloping chaos of illusion and disillusion. Yet one is simultaneously haunted by the idea that maybe there is some meaning and significance to it all anyway.
What is interesting about Pynchons novel is that the same ideas and themes were explored in a film called Under the Silver Lake by writer/director David Robert Mitchell. In that film a symbol is often found that resembles a cross between the infinity sign and a pair of superhero eyes watching one. Does the image refer to infinity? Does it refer to a mask over ones eyes? Does it refer to the idea of looking at a reflection of ones self? The mystery is never fully solved, but half the fun of the film is the journeyand it is the same in Pynchons novel. Oedipa meets myriad characters and breaks out of her own doldrum existence in which she is at risk of being poisoned to death by her LSD-toting psychiatrist. The mystery of the muted horn compels her and the hinted at associations and relationships between characters draws her to investigate more closely the meaning of Trystero. All the while, the symbol of the muted horn remainsand it is reflected in the meaning suggested by the title of the play that she watches with the (absurdly and aptly named) Paranoids band member: The Couriers Tragedy. A courier is, of course, a messenger. And what would be the tragedy of a courier? Why, if his message did not reach its destination, of course! The novel is completely about some message that is supposed to get through that is not getting through for whatever reason. Perhaps the channels are blocked. Perhaps a secret society is preventing the message from getting through.
Or perhaps there is no message at all and it is all simply a game played for absurdist purposesentertainment for a nihilistic, self-indulgent but ultimately meaningless society.
The southern writer Walker Percy does explore this idea of a message that needs to be communicated not getting through in his fiction and non-fiction. Message in a Bottle is about how difficult it is for the good news of Christian salvation to get through in the modern world because it is believed the good news is no longer needed or relevant: life is really just fine without it. That is the premise of virtually every Percy work of fictionand the reality that the protagonist experiences turns out to show that life is not as just fine as was first thoughtthat something is wrong, and that perhaps there is a need and purpose to the good news that is not getting through....
…by which to judge, what difference does it make (to echo the words of everyones favorite First Lady Hillary Clinton)? Perhaps such jaded skepticism and cynicism is all that is really meant by the muted horn and the mystery of Trystero. Or perhaps the need, the impulse, the desire to uncover the mystery, to unplug the horn, to have a bit of revelation is really
reflective of the fact that the postmodern world is not as post-truth as it thinks it is or would like to be. Perhaps what really drives the tension of Pynchons novel is that it does act as a mirror and does hold the mirror up to
nature in the postmodern era and thus does reveal some rather disturbing reflections about ones own
doubts, misgivings, suspicions, fears and concerns. If the play within the play in Hamlet could so upset his
mother, perhaps the play within Pynchons novel is meant to upset the reader and push him to a similar brinka point at which he questions his own motives and their meaning. Perhaps the muted horn of the novel is not so much about not hearing an external message as it is about not heeding the internal message that is coming from within oneself, alerting the self to a trap that the postmodern world is attempting to lure one into. After all, had Oedipa not set out on her journey to unravel the mystery, she very likely would have been LSD-ed to death by her doctor the same way her husband was. So maybe there is some merit to persevering to the end in the search for truth and meaning in a post-truth postmodern…
