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It isn't described as "difficult to understand" but "labyrinthine and recursive: full of noise", and that's an accurate description: "One summer afternoon, Mrs

It isn't described as "difficult to understand" but "labyrinthine and recursive: full of noise", and that's an accurate description: "One summer afternoon, Mrs. Oedipa Maas came home from a Tupperware party whose hostess had put perhaps too much kirsch in the fondue to find that she, Oedipa, had been named executor, or she supposed executrix, of the estate of one Pierce Inverarity, a California real estate mogul who had once lost two million dollars in his spare time but still had assets numerous and tangled enough to make the job of sorting it all out more than honorary." This is loaded with irrelevancies (full of noise) no matter what the "single thought" it is supposed to convey might be. If it's about her role as executor, why the detail about the kirsch in the fondue at the garden party? If it's about the garden party, why the anecdote about the loss of two million dollars? And given that "profluence" is a term specifically associated with Gardner, it is no surprise that an essay that opens by discussing Gardner's opinions should use it. It doesn't mean "flow" but rather the way in which fiction actively draws us forward in a continuous waking dream.

narrator 12y ago
A novel is not meant to be a police report. It's entertainment. It's a work of art. The point of art and entertainment is to provoke emotions and pleasurable sensations in the viewer's brain. In this way Pynchon creates a dreamy vivid world that's a plaything for the mind. Each sentence is an art object in a narrative museum.
stonogo 12y ago
> This is loaded with irrelevancies (full of noise) no matter what the "single thought" it is supposed to convey might be. If it's about her role as executor, why the detail about the kirsch in the fondue at the garden party? If it's about the garden party, why the anecdote about the loss of two million dollars? You seem to have confused narrative fiction with program documentation.
FreakLegion 12y ago
It's a technique typically referred to as 'free indirect discourse' (or 'style' or 'speech'). The details aren't irrelevant; they're part of the characterization of Oedipa. https://litreactor.com/columns/the-benefits-of-free-indirect-discourse https://litreactor.com/columns/the-benefits-of-free-indirect... http://faculty.washington.edu/cbehler/glossary/freeindsty.html http://faculty.washington.edu/cbehler/glossary/freeindsty.ht... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_indirect_speech http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_indirect_speech
hyperpallium 12y ago
What I like about my favourite fiction (Douglas Adams, Larry Niven, Vernor Vinge) isn't the plot or characters but the insightful little observational asides and their apt expression. That paragraph, though short, has an awful lot of information; "noise" yes, but interesting and neat observations, even elegant in their economy.
anigbrowl 12y ago
There's a lot of characterization going on in that sentence. A tupperware party: Oedipa's social circle consists of housewives who lack financial independence or grand ambitions. Too much kirsch in the fondue: the tupperware business is distinctly secondary to an excuse to get a bit drunk with friends, which tells us a bit more about her social cohort. to find that she, Oedipa: her role in this story is thrust upon her from the very first sentence, in contrast to the the passive drift suggested above. She supposed executrix: Oedipa is la little pendantic, not to mention well-educated, although we should already have guessed that from her upper-class name. Pierce Inverarity: Inverarity is a remote village in Scotland (and a very nice one too; I've driven through it several times, but that won't be on the test). We may suspect that the late Mister Inverarity was a typical Scottish penny pincher... once lost two million dollars in is spare time: ...or maybe not. This will be a whimsical story that confounds out expectations. more than honorary: Oedipa must have a certain level of professional competence to have been selected for this task. Besides all this, don't neglect the more poetic aspects of the language - the rhythm, alliteration, internal rhyming and shifting subjective clauses are engaging, the word combinations euphonious. I find Pynchon a pleasure to read despite the lack of plot or clear narrative motion. He has voice, bringing in sense of children's stories with their odd givens, the mild daytime drunkenness, the sense of having been selected for a task bigger than one might have chosen for oneself. As you can guess, I'm personally rather fond of this book :)
- clairity 12y ago
  yup, i'm fond of it too. crying of lot 49 was way more approachable than gravity's rainbow, which is absolutely puzzling without a lot of re-reading. i also read v. and vineland, which are also easier than gravity's rainbow but are still relatively convoluted compared to, say, a delillo novel. i was introduced to both authors in a history of science class, of all places. =]
- jonjacky 12y ago
  "Inverarity" also suggests "inverse rarity", a kind of postage stamp --- foreshadowing a theme of the book.

narrator 12y ago

A novel is not meant to be a police report. It's entertainment. It's a work of art. The point of art and entertainment is to provoke emotions and pleasurable sensations in the viewer's brain. In this way Pynchon creates a dreamy vivid world that's a plaything for the mind. Each sentence is an art object in a narrative museum.

stonogo 12y ago

> This is loaded with irrelevancies (full of noise) no matter what the "single thought" it is supposed to convey might be. If it's about her role as executor, why the detail about the kirsch in the fondue at the garden party? If it's about the garden party, why the anecdote about the loss of two million dollars? You seem to have confused narrative fiction with program documentation.

FreakLegion 12y ago

It's a technique typically referred to as 'free indirect discourse' (or 'style' or 'speech'). The details aren't irrelevant; they're part of the characterization of Oedipa. https://litreactor.com/columns/the-benefits-of-free-indirect-discourse https://litreactor.com/columns/the-benefits-of-free-indirect... http://faculty.washington.edu/cbehler/glossary/freeindsty.html http://faculty.washington.edu/cbehler/glossary/freeindsty.ht... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_indirect_speech http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_indirect_speech

hyperpallium 12y ago

What I like about my favourite fiction (Douglas Adams, Larry Niven, Vernor Vinge) isn't the plot or characters but the insightful little observational asides and their apt expression. That paragraph, though short, has an awful lot of information; "noise" yes, but interesting and neat observations, even elegant in their economy.

anigbrowl 12y ago

There's a lot of characterization going on in that sentence. A tupperware party: Oedipa's social circle consists of housewives who lack financial independence or grand ambitions. Too much kirsch in the fondue: the tupperware business is distinctly secondary to an excuse to get a bit drunk with friends, which tells us a bit more about her social cohort. to find that she, Oedipa: her role in this story is thrust upon her from the very first sentence, in contrast to the the passive drift suggested above. She supposed executrix: Oedipa is la little pendantic, not to mention well-educated, although we should already have guessed that from her upper-class name. Pierce Inverarity: Inverarity is a remote village in Scotland (and a very nice one too; I've driven through it several times, but that won't be on the test). We may suspect that the late Mister Inverarity was a typical Scottish penny pincher... once lost two million dollars in is spare time: ...or maybe not. This will be a whimsical story that confounds out expectations. more than honorary: Oedipa must have a certain level of professional competence to have been selected for this task. Besides all this, don't neglect the more poetic aspects of the language - the rhythm, alliteration, internal rhyming and shifting subjective clauses are engaging, the word combinations euphonious. I find Pynchon a pleasure to read despite the lack of plot or clear narrative motion. He has voice, bringing in sense of children's stories with their odd givens, the mild daytime drunkenness, the sense of having been selected for a task bigger than one might have chosen for oneself. As you can guess, I'm personally rather fond of this book :)

clairity 12y ago
yup, i'm fond of it too. crying of lot 49 was way more approachable than gravity's rainbow, which is absolutely puzzling without a lot of re-reading. i also read v. and vineland, which are also easier than gravity's rainbow but are still relatively convoluted compared to, say, a delillo novel. i was introduced to both authors in a history of science class, of all places. =]
jonjacky 12y ago
"Inverarity" also suggests "inverse rarity", a kind of postage stamp --- foreshadowing a theme of the book.