Postmodernism in Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49

Introduction to Postmodernism and Pynchon

This essay examines postmodern elements in Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 alongside Roland Barthes's essay "The Death of the Author." Specifically, it discusses the postmodern aspects of both works, including the postmodern human condition presented in the texts. Pynchon's novel is an excellent example of a postmodern work, as it embodies many of the qualities that make a postmodern novel unique. He blends unreality, parody, inner consciousness, and a sense of humor into a novel that can be convoluted and difficult to read, but is satisfying just the same.

Postmodernism is a form of literary writing that emerged after the end of World War II. It embodies a sense of unreality, humor, history (or rewritten history), and human morality, but often in very different terms. The characters are highly introspective, and the writing style is frequently filled with stream-of-consciousness narrative that places the reader directly inside the character's head. It is a unique form of writing that authors like Pynchon brought to popularity through their storytelling skills and their understanding of reality and its alternative constructions.

Pynchon conceptualizes reality differently throughout the novel, yet there is a common thread of unreality and fantasy woven throughout it as well. The plot is convoluted and difficult to follow, the situations Oedipa often finds herself in are ludicrous at best, and the ending is a dramatic drop-off that leaves the reader hanging. Reality is skewed in this novel, and that is one of the central concepts in postmodernist writing.

The Human Condition and Moral Detachment

Frankly, the human condition presented in these texts is rather depressing. There seems to be little purpose in any of the characters' lives, and in the end, Oedipa is left in limbo — and so is the reader. The novel presents most people as scheming or self-interested, with few characters genuinely concerned with anyone but themselves. There is also a very clear lack of reverence for human life, as demonstrated by the G.I. bones incident. Pynchon writes:

"An import-export firm bought the bones, sold them to a fertilizer enterprise, which may have used one or two femurs for laboratory tests but eventually decided to phase entirely into menhaden instead and transferred the remaining several tons to a holding company, which stored them in a warehouse outside of Fort Wayne, Indiana, for maybe a year before Beaconsfield got interested" (Pynchon 47).

There is a sense of detached unreality about this whole sequence, and about a society that would condone turning bones into charcoal filters. This is clearly Pynchon's view of human morals and values at the time. He uses sarcasm and unreality to show what he thinks of modern thought and society — that they are as unfeeling and shallow as the characters in his book who shrug off the charcoal incident by remarking, "None of us smoke Beaconsfields anyway. We're all on pot" (Pynchon 48). His commentary on humanity and the human condition is easy to read, and it is clear he is neither impressed nor hopeful about the future.

Human emotions and values are detached and unreal throughout the work as well. Pynchon paints vivid pictures of his characters, but they are all flawed in some way. Oedipa is married to a disc jockey with a drug problem, Dr. Hilarius is a psychotic afraid of Nazi retribution, the Paranoids are genuinely paranoid, Metzger disappears, and Pierce Inverarity is a dead jokester who may be having the last laugh on Oedipa. The characters, like society itself, are flawed, and Pynchon portrays them with warped emotions and values as a caustic commentary on modern society. Their values and emotional responses are questionable throughout: many are detached even from themselves, while others, like Oedipa, seem to read far too much into many situations.

Stream of Consciousness and Inner Reality

Inner consciousness is of primary concern in the postmodern text. Pynchon uses stream-of-consciousness writing to place the reader squarely inside Oedipa's head throughout this unusual work of fiction. For example, early in the book he writes:

"Through the rest of the afternoon, through her trip to the market in downtown Kinneret-Among-the-Pines to buy ricotta and listen to the Muzak (today she came through the bead-curtained entrance around bar 4 of the Fort Wayne Settecento Ensemble's variorum recording of the Vivaldi Kazoo Concerto, Boyd Beaver, soloist); then through the sunned gathering of her marjoram and sweet basil from the herb garden, reading of book reviews in the latest Scientific American, inter — the layering of a lasagna, garlicking of a bread, tearing up of romaine leaves [...]" (Pynchon 2).

It is as if the reader follows along as Oedipa runs her errands, lives her life, and prepares a meal while mulling over the will she must execute for her dead lover. The author does not simply tell the reader what she is thinking and feeling; he illustrates it by placing the reader inside her head and her jumbled thoughts. She is nothing if not self-reflective and in touch with her inner consciousness, which makes her the perfect heroine for a postmodernist novel.

In addition, there is an unreal and hallucinogenic quality to much of the novel that causes the reader — and Oedipa herself — to question their own perception of reality. Oedipa's life is fragmented and full of unconnected dots. The ending of the novel is another link in this fragmented conception: as Oedipa waits expectantly for the bidder on Lot 49, the reader is left hanging along with her. Pynchon writes, "The auctioneer cleared his throat. Oedipa settled back, to await the crying of lot 49" (Pynchon 152). There is no satisfactory ending — in fact, there is no ending at all, just a fragmented, suspended conclusion that is really no conclusion at all.

Conclusion

These works are the epitome of postmodernist literature. Convoluted, contrary, filled with inner consciousness, imagery, and social commentary, they are funny and a bit depressing at the same time. Pynchon's style is often difficult to read and comprehend, and more than one reading may be necessary to capture all the nuance and symbolism he brings to his writing. Barthes's commentary helps bring postmodernism — and literature in general — into clearer focus, but ultimately, this novel contains so many different commentaries and meanings that it is difficult to know exactly what the author was truly attempting to do. That ambiguity may be precisely how he wanted it.

References

Barthes, Roland. "The Death of the Author." 2007.

Pynchon, Thomas. The Crying of Lot 49. New York: Perennial Classics, 1999.