I had no idea I would enjoy this book so much! And to answer the question of is it important to know what Tristero is...No, not at all. I mean it is intersting to try to put together the pieces, but it doesn't mean anything. I think maybe Tristero is a metaphor for something else in our culture, but I am not a hundred percent sure. I think for the rest of my blog I am just going to post the the lines I underlined and explained why I liked them!

First of all I love the scene where she is in the gay bar. I think it is so funny that she just goes up to that dude with the muted horn and is like, "What if I told you, that I was an agent of Thirn and Taxis?" That cracks me up! She is just such a little investigative weirdo. I feel like if she was my friend telling me this story I would super love it. And I also enjoy the part where after the conversation with the man and she is alone and Pynchon writes, "Despair came over her, as it will when nobody around has any sexual relevance to you." Oh Oedipa.

I also feel like the line, "With coincidences blossoming these days wherever she looked, she had nothing but a sound, a word, Trystero, to hold them together." This along with many other lines seem to making a statement about the analysis of literature. Like we look for things, sounds, words, to tie some big allusive idea together that we are not even sure exist.

I like how throughout the book it seems as though Pynchon is giving you little clues, or something as to not feel so overwhelmed. Like last week with the "All Oedipa remembered was his his strong nose..."In the reading this week I found it comforting when after her nighttime journey of seeing all the signs in the different places Pynchon writes, "The repetition of the symbols was to be enough, without trauma as well as perhaps to attenuate it or even jar it altogether from her memory. She was meant to remember." It was sort of like Pynchon telling me, "Don't worry, you get the general idea, I have mentioned this horn so many times, you know what you need to know." I also really enjoyed this line, "She also wanted to know why the chance of its being real should menace her so." I was wondering that too. Like why do we care so much about it. Does it even matter. No.

And that's the thing. I have tons of questions, like little questions, but do they matter? I enjoyed the book, I had a lot of fun reading it. What now? 

I feel like in these parts he almost downplays the story. I get the feeling that he might downplay not the story so much, but what people tend to want to do to stories, as in figure them out. Like Pynchon is just telling the reader to lay back and enjoy the story, and you will get what you get, because at the end of the day Oedipa is still waiting for someone to bid on the stamp collection.

Oh and this line reminded me of what we were talking about in class last week about original version of stories and do they die when the author dies, " Though she could never again call back any image of the dead man to dress up, pose, talk to and make answer, neither would she lose a new compassion for the cul-de-sac he'd tried to find a way out of, for the enigma his efforts had created."
I feel like that is hardcore talking about what it is like to read a book and trying to make sense of it.

I'm pretty excited for class discussion on Friday! I like what I think Pynchon is getting at.... And I really don't want Oedipa to be on LSD or crazy! I just really like her, and I don't want it to be in her head, even if she does. And what else is so weird is how she is so scared that Tristero exists. So what if it does?