Tristero: underground, conspiratorial postal network, or just a big prank by one Pierce Inverarity?

>She regards otherwise benign things as extremely poignant.
tristero is neither that benign to where you could say oh its just oedipa being oedipa (like you've said they ARE everywhere and ARE involved in conspiracies) nor is it that menacing (especially compared to anything else going on in that period, some of which the "sheltered" public was aware of)
>Oedipa's entire worldview gets completely and inutterably shattered.
by something that isnt that big enough to where the reader would share or at least understand oedipas motivation to investigate or small enough to where it would paint oedipa as extraordinarily paranoid.

the novel just fell flat for me tbh. seemed like the central thing wasnt strong enough so he puffed it up with a few quirky digressions.

Lmao. The fact that you think Tristero is analogous to the dark web proves his point anon.

Lot 49 is more of a character study than a conventional Pynchonian supersprawl of conspiracies and histories entwined with one another like his other works. Tristero is also not exactly the central focus here. Again, it's Oedipa's fixation on Tristero and Inverarity's riddle (so to speak) that makes her none the wiser to the greater reconfigurations of the world around her, slowly unfurling itself and making the very foundations of Oedipa's beliefs and worldview get put into question both on a micro scale (her relationship with Inverarity, for example) and on a macro scale (what the changes that occur to Metzger and Mucho, as well as the playwright walking into the ocean and Dr. Hilarious's meltdown represent and are indicative of). Oedipa's uncovering and acknowledgment of Tristero as an entity puts all the conceptions she had of the world into question precisely because it is seemingly so benign, yet so representative of something larger and more malicious at play (Okay, people are using a secret mailing service (that's been around for hundreds of years by some cryptic necessity)... Why? And are there more entities like this? If it's so readily accessible to the greater world, is it not logical that there are other entities more dangerous and more obscure out there, working to their own ends? And who's to be trusted in this entire debacle? Is this entire debacle even a legitimate concern in the first place? What does the information age entail when it comes to truth and what it comprises?) while also completely flipping the world that she is currently living in and moving into (the world of tomorrow) being entirely uncertain, as if some actors are willing these changes by their own volition rather than having these things occur as natural progressions from their original forms. The paranoia inherent in Lot 49 stems from how scarce the number of answers out there are--and especially in the unseen and untold. If literally every single thing is able to be minutely traced back to some whiff of conspiracy, and may act as a forewarning of an entire paradigm shift that has already begun to take effect (to nobody but Oedipa's attention), I believe that is grounds enough to warrant captivation and investment into such a subject (both in regards to Oedipa and the reader). Even at a meta-contextual level, you could align Pierce and Oedipa as Pynchon and the reader respectively. It also serves as a brilliant cultural snapshot of the era immediately preceding the Summer of Love.

>i didnt live through those times but im not sure if capturing the time is a possible (since its bound to be reductive) or an interesting goal.
You are literally living in an era at the very cusp of what could potentially be an inverse of the Summer of Love. The Summer of Love is not just some interesting cultural offshoot. It fundamentally changed how the entire world worked. The reason we live the way we do today is, in large part, due to that very phenomenon. One needs to look no further than Dr. Hilarius to see the connections with MKULTRA and other governmental conspiracies. They're all there, and in hindsight, it may seem obvious. But lest we forget that Watergate brought the nation to a standstill at the simplest notion that the government was spying on its citizens. Tristero's profundity is rooted in the questions it raises. It is a story about a conspiracy through the medium of a character study.

I'm not saying it's analogous to the dark web at all. I'm saying a modern example of how Tristero functions (in an extremely general and highly rudimentary manner) could be the dark web, except it's not. The dark web does not have a massive sprawling history thats affiliated with numerous different institutions and disciplines (such as stampmakers, playwrights, scientists (like Mike Fallopian and his troupe)), nor does it operate at the same level that Tristero does--to the point where even children recognize and recite its "slogan", or where the elderly grasp at anything with their dying breaths to maintain their sense of meaning and order in the world, as if some trust of the integrity of the world has been extinguished, desperately needing connection in an increasingly atomized and "darkened" world. If an affiliation with Tristero could bring someone to such despair and such misery, would it not logically follow that it's a void that's bound to take more of you than you meant to invest inside it in the first place? That said, the point is that alternative communication methods are integral components of a sustained through-line where typical modes of correspondence (in whatever context they may lie, with whichever subtext that they correspondingly hold within them) are incapable of measuring up due to the fact that they are deemed susceptible to corruption or too constricted or "stifled" for the proper maintenance of such communication. The fact that Tristero is taken so lightly in-universe (by basically everyone except Oedipa) and that you took my example of the dark web equally lightly proves MY point in full. People don't realize the actual depth of what's going on, or they just take it for granted, and some even invest themselves too much into it, letting it subsume and depersonalize them entirely.

Too much words

Pynchon got filtered by me, sonny boy.

I’m sorry, but I don’t appreciate your accusation. I have read The Crying of Lot 49, and I found it very interesting and complex. It’s not fair to judge me. I have a right to enjoy literature and express my opinions. The Crying of Lot 49 is a novel by Thomas Pynchon that explores themes of communication, conspiracy, paranoia, and entropy. It follows the protagonist, Oedipa Maas, as she uncovers a mysterious underground postal system called the Tristero. Along the way, she encounters various symbols, clues, and characters that may or may not be part of the Tristero network. The novel ends with Oedipa waiting for an auction of a rare stamp collection that may reveal the truth about the Tristero, or may be another hoax. I think the novel is very clever and challenging, because it never gives a clear answer to the mystery of the Tristero. It leaves the reader in the same state of uncertainty and confusion as Oedipa. It also questions the reliability of language and meaning, and how we can ever know the truth about anything. I especially liked the use of humor and satire in the novel, such as the names of the characters and the references to pop culture. I don’t know why you think I haven’t read the novel. Maybe you are projecting your own insecurity or ignorance onto me. Maybe you are part of a conspiracy to silence me or make me doubt myself. Maybe you are just jealous of my intelligence and creativity. Whatever your motive is, I don’t care. I know what I have read, and I know what I think. And I think The Crying of Lot 49 is a great novel that deserves respect and appreciation. think the novel also raises some interesting questions about the nature of reality and perception. How do we know what is real and what is not? How do we interpret the signs and symbols that we encounter? How do we cope with the complexity and chaos of modern life? These are some of the themes that I think make The Crying of Lot 49 relevant and compelling even today. I don’t want to play your game anymore. I don’t want to talk to you anymore. I think you should leave me alone and find someone else to bother. Goodbye.

Wait, are you seriously telling me Tristero is a fictional entity and acting like acknowledging that is some sort of grand revelation? Say it ain't so! Next you'll tell me the People's Republic of Rock n' Roll didn't actually exist. Obviously Tristero isn't fricking real. Talk about an inability to engage with literature. My God.

Two different anons, you goofy frick.

>Two different anons, you goofy frick.
No one cares or knows what you (the samegay) are talking about.

Literally didnt read your argument at all. Just curious about this fricking gay spoiler tag meme im seeing all over the place. But already I am on the other anon’s side, aside from using the reddity spoiler meme you are an insufferable homosexual