While I found 'Mapping the Zone: A Thomas Pynchon discussion podcast' interesting, I can't say that I agree with their takes on reading'TheCrying of Lot 49', but at least listening to the chapter breakdowns kept me reading the book, where maybe I would have put it down as a book to read later ... like a lot of other books laying around me to read later.
Oddy enough, today marks 21 years since 'Diatribe of a Mad Housewife' aired where ThomasPynchon has a cameo "appearance", his face hidden by a paper bag with a question mark on it.
This is intended to satirise the author's "own carefully crafted anonymity".
I think that reading 'TheCrying of Lot 49'is like looking into aRorschach test to see what you and other readers make out of it, rather than what Pynchonis putting before you in words.
The symbol of a mutedpost horn with the label "W.A.S.T.E." I found synchromystic on a few personal levels.
The word Spurs on page 137 of 'The Crying of Lot 49'
"In 1844, the German cornet player Hermann Koenig wrote Post Horn Galop as a solo for post horn with an orchestral accompaniment. In the 20th century it became a popular piece for brass bands. It has been the walk-on music for the Leicester City Football Club since 1935."
I also picked up the latest ALDI catalogue to see that horns are on sale there from Wednesday.
X number of Americans/'The Crying of Lot 49'
I think that the 'Books of Some Substance' podcastguys with their description of the book in their podcast episode summary sum up my feelings as well,"Encompassing both the absurd and the prophetic, this early work by the reclusive author covers everything from embedded allusions to the cultural tumult of the 1960s, distrust of any and all formal systems, and a prescient view of the future of communication(cough, the internet, cough). But perhaps the most meaningful conclusion to draw from Pynchon’s work is the absence of drawn conclusions."
January 26this Australia Day and with me and the Spurs coach both being Australian citizens this result did not make for a happy Australia Day for either of us, I feel:-(