The Theme of The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon - Essay Example

Entropy Introduction Thomas Pynchon published the novel, The Crying of Lot 49, in nineteen sixty-six. The book is a collection of pop culture, paranoia, and history. It contains a lot of innovation, creativity, and comes out as irritating. The most profound theme in the book is entropy. Besides, other themes in the novel sometimes referred to as novella support entropy as the main theme. Stylistic devices applied by Pynchon in the book lead to the exposure of entropy as the main theme. Entropy forms part of common experiences that people go through in their daily lives. Thomas Pynchon gives the message that nature constantly moves life from order to disorder. It is worth noting, at this level, that Pynchon publishes the book following his full knowledge of history, pop culture, and paranoia whose identity cannot be easily recognized or combined. Entropy creates a patterned system that is tight and whose progression is unavoidable. The pattern also appears chaotic in nature. Pynchon’s theme of entropy focuses on America’s movement of culture to modernism. This movement seems unstoppable because culture is not static and is representative of trends in societies other than America. Analysis Pynchon centers on entropy from the start of the novel. His introduction to the learner contains this information. Pynchon shows his dissatisfaction in the introduction by explaining that his works seem to be out of various abuses on paper. The abuse to him is overwriting. Analysis of this assertion leads to the conclusion that Thomas Pynchon deliberately the dislike as a stylistic device. He claims in his personal critique that writers, in most cases, develop themes for characters. In his effort to introduce entropy, Pynchon avers that characters should generate themes in the novels through their personalities. He arranges his work to flow in a way that gives rise to entropy as the main idea put across. Other styles including the metaphor that the author creates apply the same. An analysis of the novella leads one to question if conspiracy exists or is a situation generated by Oedipa who is the main character. Despite the question, Oedipa pursues the metaphor in several ways getting different ideas and results. Among the paths, Oedipa develops stories that qualify as tales that reflect the actions in the society and moves to assess the validity of the same. Oedipa does this continuously while refining them. This is a comparison to Pynchon’s assertion that characters in novels should generate themes and the other way round (Pynchon, 1965, 51). Just as Oedipa attempts to refine the stories after testing them, the author changes literary renditions in the best way. Furthermore, Oedipa creates a mystery to the reader by finding substantial leeways through coincidence but under very odd circumstances. The mystery involves either comprehending whether life is very amorphous that actions only occur through coincidence and affect people’s live greatly or if it is so void that characters such as Oedipa begin to imagine what they can do because of availability of unlimited information. Oedipa’s quest brings out the theme of entropy. The author combines ideas from other disciplines of studies such as physics and sociology to invoke the concepts of entropy. In addition to the two disciplines, he uses philosophical phenomena to underscore the main concept. The author creates a closed world that is an equivalent of physics’ closed system where particles move in a disorderly way. People and information in Pynchon’s world move in the same way towards entropy. In the continuation of his metaphor, Oedipa moves to correct the disorder from the ugly situations in the closed system. Considering the fact that she develops a closed world, it is difficult to understand whether Oedipa will succeed in her efforts or it is a process in futility. If she succeeds, then she will put truths in a world full of controversies. However, if she fails, she will have faced the normal actions of the world where it would have been impossible to fight a patterned system. All these actions expose entropy as the author’s main concept in the novel. The analysis of the novel leads the reader to the conclusion that Pynchon would inevitably arrive at which is that the novel carries no truth and even the author fails to create any. Oedipa carries the personality of other characters. They too show similar characteristics by attempting to create truths from actions of their lives. The conspiracy that the author develops in the mystery seems to escape the minds of other characters. They develop rational frameworks and fit every bit of their encounters into the same. Once, they fail to develop what they desire, it is worth concluding that things are relevant only if the characters say. People are always at the core of the universe; they create and organize it. This means that Pynchon has a desired flow of literature where characters develop themes in his universe; he feels it should be the system of doings things in the development of a novel. When Pynchon infers other disciplines, it is easy to quote Maxwell’s Demon. The author develops entropy in a way similar to Nefastis machine. The world is heterogeneous and Nefastis machine has inherent sorting abilities that have the capacity to maintain the heterogeneous status. The system in Nefastis machine divides the two types of molecules into various compartments that allow the generation and maintenance of heat. The state of matters does make it possible for the particles to share properties in any way until the system creates a balance. Pynchon expresses his concept of entropy scientifically in this case. The Demon metaphor is as old as nineteen sixty-five. The author applies the concept of perpetual motion to illustrate his ideas. The work that the world does to rearrange activities is done by a software in the computer. Oedipa has a duty of sieving clues and sorting out issues that face her. It is appropriate to compare Grant’s statement that metaphor is at the core of the working of the machine and Oedipa’s metaphor. Oedipa has a clear understanding of her problems and indecisiveness. The world and its universal system in entirety have shown a bias towards adopting entropy just as the closed system. Pynchon further moves the concept of entropy through other minor themes. The author considers what the closed system excludes while rearranging ideas from an orderly to disorderly manner as the most valuable. The idea behind was to concur with the subordinate concept of exclusion to support entropy. The literature reflects actions within the society. This is especially with Pynchon who reflected actions within his society through the novella Crying of Lot 49. The universal system is organized in a way that people in the world do not get alerts over the changes that the system makes. Similarly, there is a breakdown of communication within the novel. This happens in the present and through the generations within the book. In chapter five, for instance, information regarding the history is vague (Pynchon, 1965, 109). Information provided about the history of the people is disjointed and it is difficult to differentiate facts from forgery. When things change in the universe, it finds people by surprise. People tend to find it difficult to understand that changes happen. Pynchon develops the inconsistencies in communication deliberately to explore his intended concept of entropy. Symbolically, the muted horn linking connections in the underworld that relates to Trystero marks the end of communication. This group is mysterious. The horn appears on the underground mail system and once more on old postage stamps. The appearance of the horn on old postage stamps seems to be a forged statement. As the mystery continues, Oedipa discovers that the symbolic horn also appears on courier services operated by Thurn and Taxis. Surprisingly, this same company was historically distributing mails in the ancient Roman Empire. The question posed at the start of the novel on whether the flow of the story centers on fiction or fact continues. The complexity of the events in the novel continues to advance the concept of entropy. While investigating the stamps, Oedipa realizes that the symbolic horn is all over. In the process, the conspiracy of the underworld finds her by surprise and this throws her into doubts over the existence of the same. Oedipa begins from a world that is organized but systematically moves into one where her thoughts were digressed. This is purely entropy. Her effort to know what the symbolic horn entails confuses the man’s knowledge. The flow only serves to continue the concept of entropy drafted by the author at the start of the novella. Pynchon uses imagery appropriately by applying the information surrounding the stamps and the symbolic horn in history to effect distortion in communication. The universal system does not have a structured communication system through which it informs people of imminent changes. This is what the author puts across while deliberately distorting the flow of information. Pynchon underscores the transition of the American society in various ways. He reconstructs the history of the US. The transition from mail system of sending messages to invention of the telegraph through the development of modern technology explains some of the developments that the US has undergone. Conclusion Assessing Pynchon’s classical way in which he brings out the tragedy of Courier shows how he reconstructs the American history. His reconstruction areas include the media, technology, and cultural settings in addition to education. While discussing his ideas with professionals understates a goes on, the rivalry between academic and media progresses regarding reconstruction. In analyzing the state of the society as presented by Pynchon, the reader questions the truth behind the information regarding Trystero Postal System. Pierce Inverarity sets up Oedipa in an attempt to confuse her line of thinking. It is easy for the reader, just like other characters, to fit people into social frameworks and in the process fall into the trap paranoia that is not real. Works Cited Pynchon, Thomas. The Crying of Lot 49. New York, Harper perennial publishers, 1965. Print. Read More