Pynchon

Where to start…how about by screaming!  This book was, in my opinion, extremely frustrating.  It opens with a mad frenzy of needless information and ends without a resolution.  The combination of historical fact with fictional additives created a very suspenseful read, but the steady increase of madness and instability that is observed by Oedipa is extremely confusing at times.  It is important to keep in mind that the reader’s sense of reality is influenced by the protagonist’s sense of reality.  While the conspiracy was real to Oedipa, it was real to the reader.  In her mind, she was seeing signs of her reality everywhere she looked, but it was as if she needed to see these signs to verify her sanity.  Everywhere she turned, the people in her life were letting her down, her husband, her lover, and her shrink…all of them let her down.  Her grip on reality was skewed by the loss of everything that she used to define herself. 

            The same trap could be set for society.  People typically define themselves based on their relationships with other people in their life.  I am a Mother, I am a sister, I am a brother, I am a worker, I am a teacher…etc.  It makes perfect sense for someone who loses their grip on who they are to society, to forget who they are as a person.  Without the ability to define yourself, do you exist?  I can see this process happening to Oedipa throughout the book.  She loses Inverarity in the beginning of the book and then proceeds to lose everyone else who plays any significant part of her life that is introduced.  The obvious psychological effect would be to cling to anything that remained constant for any period of time.  For her, this was the Trystero.  Throughout her adventures and her losses, the Trystero was the ONLY thing that remained constant.  Even when it was proposed to her that it was all a fake on page 138, she held on to the belief that it had to be real.  She had been beaten down so severely and felt so alone that she couldn’t begin to entertain the thought that, that which she had devoted so much time to, could have been nothing more than a prank.  She needed it to be real.  She needed something to believe in, and she was unwilling, and, probably unable to give it up.

Preferences

I have a hard time defining myself as a reader because to define oneself is, inevitably to limit oneself.  I like to think of myself as open to new ideas and new genres of literature.  I greatly enjoy classic literature ranging from the teachings of Homer, Aristotle, and Plato but also enjoy more modern literature as well.  I try not to limit myself by declaring a favorite.  I will read anything once.  Without exposure to new ideas and techniques, how can you grow as an individual?  I strive to learn as much as possible, and I do that by reading a wide variety of books and magazines.  Presently, I am focusing on real estate, investing, and legal books.  I am amazed by the vast array of information that can be obtained through reading.  Ok…enough of the obvious.

I rarely read for simple entertainment.  I like to read with a purpose.  I try to learn about new ideas and social issues.  Unfortunately, during the semester, I only really have time for work and school so my reading gets put on hold. 

My preference in literary mediums focuses primarily around books.  I tend to avoid online sources and would much rather read a bound literary source than stare mindlessly at a computer screen.  I also tend to avoid magazines or daily news and prefer journals and scholarly sources that can track the accuracy of their information.  I know I sound boring but I am intent on understanding as much as possible about people and events and the social and economic sectors of life.