The Crying of Lot 49

I call bullshit, you can't truly have so many friends that you execute them whenever they disappoint

Some people find it interesting and fun to read.

>>8662495

lel

>>8662495
kek

>>8662483
Why'd you put it down? this book is a fun read and it's only like 100 pages

It's a pretty good depiction of a character's descent into madness, obsession, and paranoia. Read the book and then look up testimonials by (delusional) people who think they're being gangstalked. They'll remind you of Oedipa.

>>8662532
It feels like it's about 500. Maybe that's the problem.
At least the part with the layers of clothing was funny that

>>8662542
How far into it did you get?

>>8662570
I personally finished it. Really didn't like it. Didn't like V. either. Enjoyed the rest though.

>>8662483
>he can't read less than 200 pages
I think you should be put down.

>>8662577
i had issues with the first few chapters of V. i simply was not interested in Profane, Rachel, or Esther's plight, and was initally skeptical about Stencil. however, when the Mondaugen chapter kicks in, everything ater that is pretty damn good. especially the Maijstral letter chapter. really strong stuff. Pynchon had not perfected his style yet and while a lot of the ingredients he would retain in the rest of his novels are present, he had yet to harmonize these elements.

File: 1449786735140l11.png (892KB, 1601x599px) Image search: [Google]

892KB, 1601x599px

hmm really makes me think

Entropy is a theme that pervades the entire novel. We can consider entropy as the measure of energetic disorder in the universe, which is constantly increasing with the universe’s natural expansion. Some research on the subject has taught me that the “universal” law of entropy can be ascribed to and observed in a closed system, a “box of molecules” in which the net quantity of energy never changes (law of conservation of energy), but the entropy of the system will, over time, increase with the continued disordering of the closed system, left to its own devices. Pynchon intricately weaves his novel to include entropic imagery, the “closed system” image announced by Oedipa saying that she feels “in the confinement of a tower” (Pynchon 4) at the beginning of the novel, as the gradual sense of disordering she experiences begins to worsen, the increasingly entropic “closed system” in this instance, her own psyche. Pynchon’s writing wonderfully reflects this theme of entropy, as he pens the novel itself as a closed thermodynamic system, where the reader is introduced to the narrative through Oedipa’s fairly neutral situation and perspective, but is quickly thrust into an ever-more discordant and chaotic series of events with each turn of the page. This theme of entropy as the novel’s structure is emphasized with instances of heavy drug use (Pynchon 6), wherein the disorder the book descends into feels psychedelic to the reader, an aside to the underground cultural staple that LSD became in the ‘60s.
Maxwell’s Demon is a real thing. Or, rather, the theory positing its existence as a thought experiment is a serious scientific consideration. Maxwell’s Demon is the brainchild of physicist Clerk Maxwell, and is essentially a hypothetical means of violating the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The Second Law stipulates that a thermodynamic reaction shall indefinitely proceed in a way that the entropy – disorder– is continuously increasing, as thermodynamic reactions involve the use of heat which increases molecular spread and kinetic energy, thus increasing the “chaos” of the system. Maxwell’s Demon is a theoretical being that Stanely Koteks describes to Oedipa as a “tiny intelligence” (Pynchon 24). The basis of the experiment, as described by Koteks is that “the Demon could sit in a box … and sort out the fast molecules from the slow ones. Fast molecules have more energy than slow ones. Concentrate enough of them in one place and you have a region of high temperature.” This region of high temperature, then, could be used to drive a steam engine or in the case of Nefastis’s machine, “raise a piston” (Pynchon 27).

(2/2) Pynchon further complicates the ideal of the Demon in this scene by explaining that entropy was twofold – “One having to do with heat-engines, the other to do with communication…the equation for one had looked very much like the equation for the other” (Pynchon 30). Pynchon thusly links the two “entirely unconnected” (Pynchon 30) and contrasting themes of the novel, the quest for information, and chaos (Trystero and Entropy respectively), at one point: Maxwell's Demon. Oedipa herself remarks that “The word [entropy] bothered him almost as much as ‘Trystero’ bothered Oedipa” (Pynchon 30). Nefastis himself proclaims that “Entropy is a figure of speech, then… a metaphor. It connects the world of thermo-dynamics to the world of information flow” (Pynchon 30).

Nefastis explains that the loss in entropy caused by the demon’s orderly sorting of molecules in the system was “offset by the information the Demon gained about what molecules were where,” (Pynchon 30) – information that the Demon had to relay through a “sensitive” to “keep it all cycling” (Pynchon 30). Ultimately, Oedipa takes the test and fails. She finds that she cannot communicate with the demon, and the piston does not, in actuality, move – “but nothing happened” (Pynchon 30). Her inability to communicate with Maxwell’s Demon, the link between information and energetic entropy, is metaphorically indicative of Oedipa’s larger inability to establish or maintain any semblance of order in her pursuit of information. In her pursuit of meaning, her pursuit of Trystero, she delves deeper into madness and psychedelic discord and ultimately fails to maintain any sense of order. The “entropy of her situation” continuously increases, with maddening instances like the children in the park (Pynchon 39), W.A.S.T.E’s obscure horn symbol appearing more and more frequently throughout the novel (Pynchon 33, 36, 39), and Dr. Hilarius’s (arguably) drug-fueled rampage (Pynchon 38) all occurring towards the later stages of the novel, a long shot from the novel’s reasonably benign beginnings.

During her interaction with the Machine, Oedipa remarks that “And there. At the top edge of what she could see: hadn't the right-hand piston moved, a fraction?” (Pynchon 30), Pynchon’s mocking of Oedipa thinking that she can, maybe, have some control of her own personal entropy, when in reality she has no communion with the Demon, Order is thrown further to the wind with the novel’s progression, and ultimately the novel ends with no conclusion, no order, to the mystery of who is behind the crying of Lot 49.

>>8663264
>>8663270
from a paper I wrote some time ago, do enjoy. Hopefully this explains some things. The backdrop of Pynchon's novel is the '60s LSD culture, for reference.

>>8662483
bruh it's like 20 pages how could you "put it down"

>>8662577
But V. is his best book, you mong.

>>8662635
>Pynchon had not perfected his style yet
This is part of what I like about V. It feels like he is really trying to display all these ideas and techniques he has, all at once, which results in the book wandering all over the place quite ecstatically which, to me, suits the narrative well.

>>8662495
KEK

>>8663273
Thank you, I enjoyed reading this.