The Atoms Of Writing

Gary Lutz's lecture had one main target that was explain how words affect writing. I liked how he went from very specific to broad when going from the words to the sentence to the paragraph. The sentence is composed of words that by themselves do not mean anything. The words are the smallest part of writing that has a meaning, almost as if they were the atoms of writing. These words when placed together in a sentence by a writer can have the ability to be a good sentence or not. According to Lutz: "But too often our habitual and hasty breaking away from one sentence to another results in sentences that remain undeveloped parcels of literary real estate, sentences that do not feel fully inhabitated and settled in by language". When a word is not placed by the author in accordance to the other words then the sentence can lose its meaning. I really agreed with this part and I somehow saw this out of sentence sometimes showed in the actions of one friend. If we are all happy and having a good time he has to be angry and trying to make us all have a bad time. When we are all bored and tired he is the one that is full of energy trying to make us happy. In the sentence when the words do not fit together then they may change the meaning. As said by Lutz "And as the words reconstitute themselves and metamorphose, your sentence may begin to make a series of departures from what you may have intended to express", and it is true one word can change the meaning of the whole sentence. I really liked how this lecture managed to incorporate personal experiences of the author and at the same time link it to the topic he is going to discuss.

The Crying Of Lot 49 Chapter 6: Pynchon The Master Of The Labyrinth

The process of a story is in just one conversation where a person tells the other person what happened. The novel is meant to go slower in a more detailed manner while focusing on many other themes. The novel is also divided by chapters which make the reader have some sort of stops. This article is really what Oedipa's life has become. Before Oedipa's life was like a long novel where she did not have anything much to do. It was all monotonous and she almost had no communication with Mucho. Now her life had become a story. Her life was happening at incredible rates where she would drive around California searching for clues that lead to more information about WASTE. She had also met many people and had many strange events. One of these people that she met and helped her in some way to discover more about WASTE was the man from the bar called The Greek Way. At the end he was the only one Oedipa wanted to talk to. Oedipa was somehow wondering if all this clues and trying to solve the mystery was set up by Inverarity. The man from the bar said "It's too late" (pg.146), and when he said that I thought the same Oedipa thought. The question I would have asked then would be too late for what or for whom? He tells her that it was too late for him but did not explain anything more. Pynchon might have done this to leave a lot of room for interpretation to the reader. The reader now has to imagine what he meant. When I read this I thought that it was too late for her to retire of the case. She had gone too deep now in the knowing of the case that dropping now would be more difficult than not dropping. He also creates leaves the story with us really not knowing if all was a joke of Inverarity or it is true. In this way he creates two options but he never tells us which one is done.

A thing I noticed is that in some occasion Pynchon slips in his opinion about a certain subject in the novel. According to Pynchon: "The owner informed her that Zapf, the damn fool, has set fire to his own store for insurance" (pg.122). The first time I read this sentence I did notice that it says damn fool but I did not really care about it. Then when I saw that there was no one talking in this quotation I looked back to see who was talking. When I noticed it was the narrator that said that to the owner of the shop I noticed that Pynchon had some sort of hate for Zapf. We do not know who Zapf is but we know that Pynchon is not very fond of this character. The other thing I noticed that Pynchon included in this quotation was the materialistic thinking of people. How can one set on fire its shop just to get some money? I think that this person did not care how much spiritual value his shop full of books and his work life had. We are sometimes too much driven for power and money that we tend to forget the spiritual side. Pynchon might have included this quotation to show the greed of human kind and how people will do anything for money.

The Crying Of Lot 49 Chapter 5: Destiny’s Game

Today I got the news that one of my friends has his new driving license. I am really annoyed at everyone getting their license when they turn sixteen and feeling as if I am the only one that is already sixteen without this license. I have decided that I will take the course in the week of Thanksgiving. When I sometimes see people in the streets I am not sure of how prepared I am going o be to face the real traffic. I do know how to drive already and I am sure that it isn't a very big problem to drive myself around but I have seen some reckless driving in the streets that really leaves me astonished. When I see these kinds of drivers I start questioning the safety that people have around these excellent drivers that go in the wrong way to save themselves five minutes of traffic. I sometimes worry of the pedestrians that cross the street in the middle of the street where they are not supposed to cross. They are very irresponsible and sometimes cross as if there were no cars speeding by. The fact that young careless drivers have license really increases the percentages of accidents. In The Crying Of Lot 49 Oedipa is faced in a situation where she is almost killed thanks to the careless driving of a boy. According to Pynchon: "She drove more or less automatically until a swift boy in a Mustang, perhaps unable to contain the new sense of virility his auto gave him, nearly killed her" (pg.87). In this quotation I could see the word destiny written all over it. The boy nearly killed her but, he failed. That failure was done by destiny. The destiny of Oedipa is to execute Inverarity's will and to find out what this organization of W.A.S.T.E. is about. Since her destiny hadn't been fulfilled up to that moment then it was not meant for her to die. Pynchon might have meant with this quotation to show us how the task destiny has set us up to do is meant to be done. It doesn't matter how much you try to evade it and run from it you will end up doing what destiny has in mind for you.

WASTE is an underground organization of mail delivery not controlled in any sense by the government. When I first saw this problem I thought that the persons that invented this had to be very illegal and wanted to do something evil out of this invention. Then I said that mu conclusion was very basic and that I did not let the members of this WASTE mail explain their reasons. If was a person in a world where all the mail I sent was read and censored by the government I would also be very upset. All the privacy that is meant to be used when people write letters is lost. What will happen next is that people will start to put secret codes and messages to try to get their private and personal messages across to the recipient without the government knowing. If this were to happen then it would become really complicated to write letters. The main purpose of letters is to provide communication between people. If the codes start to flow in and the governmental censors then the communication will be lost. After seeing this scenario that I made up that was the most possible scenario of those people that made up WASTE I concluded that if I was among those people I would have also done an underground postal system. A woman that is saying good-bye to her son in the airport said "Write by WASTE, remember. The government will open it if you use the other" (pg.100). What she said is really the problem that happened in that time and it was that the government managed to view all the information that people communicated.

The Crying Of Lot 49 Chapter 4: Yoyodyne Inc.

I saw in the internet some days ago a big fight between two companies that were saying that one of their new product was really of the other company. The company that currently produces and sells to the public the new product is being accused by the other company that they stole the idea from them and are using it now as if it was theirs. I am sure this type of problem happens a lot between rival companies. It may be a strategy of the company to try to demoralize the other company by making the other company appear as if they were stealers in the eyes of the public. This can be true because in today's economy advertisement and public appearance of the companies affect a lot their incomes. Another scenario that can happen is that the accusation is actually true. If the accusation is true then it means that one company stole the ideas from the other. For me it would be really frustrating if you have been working in a product for a long time. You have dedicated a lot of your income to this product because it will be something new that the world has never seen before. Suddenly the day before you are going to announce the product you discover that another person has stolen your plans and shown that product as his. Yoyodyne Inc. is also a company that wants to increase their income. They do this in many ways as an ordinary company but they also violate patent and copyrights of the author. According to Pynchon "Koteks explained how every engineer, in signing the Yoyodyne contract, also signed away the patent rights to any inventions he might come up with" (pg.67). When I read this I remembered Jesus' saying of not doing to others what you don't want them to do to you. In this case Yoyodyne is doing the exact opposite of what this maxim says. Yoyodyne definitely doesn't want other companies or people stealing their ideas and inventions but, they do want to steal and take away the inventions that people make while they are working for them. It is also a way of perpetuating the inventor to the company. If you have invented something and you happen to be really fond of it but, its known discoverer is Yoyodyne and not you. If you happen to have this situation it would be more difficult for you to leave because you can't just part without your invention and there is no way of taking it away from the company's claws.

There was a part of the book that I found was really related to my life. There is a part where Fallopian is talking with Oedipa about Koteks and what he had said. In the explanation of Fallopian there is a quotation that says "What's it like, Oedipa, being all alone in a nightmare like that" (pg.70)? I really related to this quotation because there is also a nightmare that I have some times. I don't really know when it happens but I have had the same dream a couple of times. The nightmare I have is that I am in my house with my parents and a very strong tornado comes. There is a lot of barking from the dogs of my neighborhood and I do not why this is. I look outside the window and I see a very large tornado coming straight at me. When it hits I am blown away to a very different place. I look around to see familiar faces and I see no one I know. I am lost now and I do not even know where. I try to talk to someone in Spanish and after seeing no response I try in English. Having both languages failed I realized that I was alone in this new world and had to figure my own way out. After remembering this awful nightmare I really felt compassion for Koteks and what his life had become. After this I started to think of the many movies I have seen where there is only the last survivor in the world. I started to imagine myself in that situation and I definitely concluded that I would never like to be the last survivor in the earth and be all alone.

The Crying Of Lot 49 Chapter 3: The True Inverarity

The name Mucho Maas is definitely a name I would have never chosen for a character. Even though it is a strange name it does make some sense in some way. Mucho Maas is a very normal person without anything extraordinary. His name in Spanish means way more. After reading this I had quickly a question that needed to be answered: way more than what? In my opinion his name should be more Mucho Menos because he really doesn't have anything that goes above a normal person. According to Pynchon "It was an ordinary Muchoesque envelope, swiped from the station, ordinary airmail stamp" (pg.33). This letter showed the simplicity of Mucho and the fact that he did not go into lots of extra work into making a letter. We have already seen a letter sent to Oedipa before that was Inverarity's letter. Mucho's letter compared to him could have been said to be dull and lacking of meaning. In Inverarity's letter was his will. It is much more important a will than an ordinary letter but I think Pynchon did this such drastic importance of the letters to show the importance of the characters. He wanted to show to us how Mucho is more of a secondary character that until now has not done any major thing. In the other hand he wants to exalt Inverarity and show that without his will the story will be very different because the story is about Inverarity's will. There was also a part where the theme of a family member wanting to marry another person of its family. In the book there is a quotation that says "Evil Duke Angelo, […] by marrying off the only royal female available, his sister Francesca" (pg.50). Since I had started to read this book I thought that the name Oedipa had to do something with the real meaning of the book. Until now I had tried to see in what moments of this book the story of Oedipus could have been reflected but couldn't see any. I almost got to think that the name Oedipa was satire because she never talked about her family or had any way of showing that she had any relationship with a family member. Oedipus was now shown in the small fragment of the play when the two brothers are going to marry. This play may not be the most important thing in the book but, it was a way Oedipa had to find out more about Inverarity and the bones he bought.

Some weeks ago I was flipping through channels when I saw a documentary that related to this story. I saw a documentary in Discovery Channel called The Ten Commandments Of Mafia. There is a part in this book that talks a lot of what I learned from this documentary. Di Presso says "Who's Tony Jaguar. Very big in Cosa Nostra" (pg.43) and I immediately recognized that name. In the documentary they explained that Cosa Nostra was the way that mafia members called the mafia. In this documentary that I saw they explained that the mafia appeared in the US when mostly big Italian families immigrated. At the beginning the mafia gangs were only those that were family members, after they started incorporating anyone that seemed faithful and worthy to include. I think that Pynchon included the mafia in this book to show that maybe Inverarity's business were not all legal and that there were some that could have been done with the mafia. Also it could have been foreshadowing that he may be part of the mafia.

The Selfish Gene Chapter 13: The Lessons Of Life

"They are the same but different" was something that a friend once said to me. I said that how could that be possible since both are the same they have to be the same in all characteristics. She explained to me that this is not necessarily true because they me the same in many aspects but, there will always be something that will be different. I then imagined the case of twin brothers. Twin brothers are almost the same physically but, can be very different psychologically. In The Selfish Gene there is a part where I could see this concept of same but different reflected. According to Dawkins: "All genes look alike, just as all recording tapes look alike. The important differences between genes emerge only in their effects" (pg.235). Really what is outside is not as important as what is inside. If genes of muscle growth and hair growth were really similar and the body confused one with the other the effect that the gene produces is what matters. It doesn't matter what is done in the gene level if the effect that the body needs is achieved. This also reminds me of the maxim that said "Never judge a book by its cover". A book is very much like a gene. If you just see it from the outside it may seem the same stacks of paper folded and pasted together but, what is important in the book is the content and the lessons and stories it can tell us. Two weeks ago I went to a tennis tournament. I went with one friend and he had a match against this guy that was very small and did not seem very dangerous. My friend entered the court thinking that he was going to win easily. In the warm up the small kid did not hit very well and what we all judged seemed to be in accordance to his abilities. He won the flip of the coin and chose to serve. My friend was extremely confident of his win when the little guy surprised everyone in the crowd when he served an ace that was really going fast. The little guy ended up winning the match and that taught me a valuable lesson that is to "never judge the book by its cover".

There was a part of the book where I was really impressed of how the animal managed to trick or manipulate the other animal to help him. Normally when a person wants to trick another one or manipulate him, he will not want to show his true intentions. I say that the cuckoo is the perfect trick master because he can trick and manipulate almost anyone. According to Dawkins: "Its nervous system is being controlled, as irresistibly as if it were a helpless drug addict, or as if the cuckoo were a scientist plugging electrodes into his brain" (pg.249). What the cuckoo does is that he opens his beak and if another parent sees it he will go like if he was hypnotized and give the food to the cuckoo instead of his kids. If you think of it, it is really hard to avoid because it is a bright red mouth that attracts lots of attention. In the quotation Dawkins used drugs to refer to the cuckoo but, I think it is not the best object he could have used. In drugs there is a choice when a person offers you drugs to say strongly and clearly no. That is your easy way out of drugs but, in this case the other bird can't simply say no to the magic spell that the cuckoo lays on him. If you are flying through the sky and suddenly see an object that attracts your attention you will look at it if you do not know it is a cuckoo. Suddenly when you realize it you are giving the food of your kids to this cuckoo. Escaping of the spell that the cuckoo creates is much harder than saying no to drugs or anything that will create a dependency.

The Crying Of Lot 49 Chapter 2: Music of Oedipa’s Life

Rejection is a word that has always been in at least one chapter of a person's life. I would say that rejection will always happen because the person doesn't fit in. I once tried to go to band class. I was not rejected by the teacher because he couldn't simply kick me out of class but, I saw that all my class mates were playing their instruments very well compared to me. I tried to get better by practicing but, it simply did not work. Finally I discovered that music wasn't simply my thing. I always felt bad when I saw my grades of that class because I simply couldn't do music. In that time I was very fortunate that the grades of exploratories did not count on the GPA. Finally I dropped out. My mistake was there. If I have learned something in life is that life will always manage to put up harder challenges so you try them, not for you to drop out. This theme of rejection and being left aside was the main theme of the song that Miles sang. Miles's song said "That's what you tell me all the time, When you really try'n' to put me down" (pg.16). This song that Miles sang had a meaning because it ended up in him not giving up. Pynchon had to use this song for a certain reason and used it when Oedipa was entering the room. He may be trying to foreshadow that during Oedipa's life there will be many cases when someone will try to bring her down. The important thing is for her not to give up.

Music is also a thing that has great ambiguity. In general people like music because it reminds them of parties and having fun with friends, or special moments like graduation. But music that you do not like can also get you really sad or angry. It all depends on what kind of music you listen to and like. Therefore we can say that music has the power to change our mood. According to Pynchon: "From the other room came a slow, deep crescendo of naval bombardment, machine-gun, howitzer and small-arms fire" (pg.25). This can be seen as the dark side of music. The sounds in war can also be seen as music. For me it would be music where it will get me angry and sad. Maybe the generals and the commanders who like war might hear this music as nice. It all depends on the perspective of who listens to it. The music that was playing on the TV was that of war. Pynchon might have done this to show us how Oedipa's life was and was going to continue to be like. What I have seen until now is that she has many lovers and that she doesn't seem to be in a job. Also her husband is a DJ in a radio station and she doesn't seem to be too fond of him.

The Crying Of Lot 49 Chapter 1: Can Destiny Be Evaded?

Destiny is a thing that can't be evaded. It does not matter how much you try to escape from it, it will always get you. I have always asked myself if that is true. In some ways you can have a pre-determined job or task you have to do. You will never know what this task is but all your decisions and things you do in life spin around this job and eventually gets you to fulfill it. I have always thought of hypothetical situations when I have a proposal for a job or have an opportunity. This will be my supposed destiny but, then I say no to this opportunity and go to another place. In my pre-determined job and destiny is to have said no to that job or opportunity and go and pursue another job or destiny. I always end up saying that it doesn't matter what you do to try to change how things are meant to be because when you change them that change will lead you to how the things were meant to be. In The Crying Of Lot 49 there is a quotation that says "We want you" (pg.8). When I first read this I also imagined the same thing Oedipa and probably you imagined. The picture of Uncle Sam saying this is a very well known picture. Thomas Pynchon might have used such a known picture in this book to relate more to the readers. If instead of referring to this picture he had chosen to refer to a painting that was not as well known then, many of the readers wouldn't imagine themselves seeing the image of Uncle Sam. The quotation also makes an allusion to destiny and fate. When someone says we want you it is almost as thought that was your destiny. As I said destiny can't be evaded because it will always get you even if you go to another place. In the end I think Oedipa will end up helping Dr. Hilarius even though she doesn't want to help him. This can really be similar to what happened to Candide. Candide's destiny was to end up with Lady Cunégonde and many events happened to impede him from having her. In the end his destiny was to end up with her and it did not matter what happened they would end up together because that was what destiny had for them. I think in this case there will also be a lot of playing with the destiny of Oedipa and how will life end up having her do something that she did not wanted in first place.

The other day I was watching CSI and there was a very intelligent killer. In the crime scene the killer had placed objects that had nothing to do with the real happening of the scene. In this case the detectives had a lot of trouble figuring out the case because they followed one clue and ended up getting farther from the truth and then they traced another clue and had the same results. One thing that the detectives learned is that clues and evidence can be sometimes left on purpose to mislead them. There was a similar sense of confusion in this book. According to Pynchon: "That phone line could have pointed any direction, been any length. Its quite ambiguity" (pg.3). This phone call was very similar to the crime scene because it left more questions than answers. Maybe the intention of the caller was to left these questions so Oedipa wouldn't really know what had happened. After reading this I had the impression that the book would have many cases where the ambiguity of the events will make the story misleading. There was also a thing that was different from many books that was that this is full of confusion. After reading chapter one I would say that this book will be full of confusion and many chaotic events. It will be a different confusion from the one we saw in Slaughterhouse-five but, it will have the same effect that is to keep the reader more attentive. I think this book will have a confusion that is based more on the uncertainty of events and on many people that will appear in Oedipa's life.