Satire of Lot 49

After reading the first chapter of The Crying of Lot 49, I have to say I was a little bit confused. By reading the back of the book, I knew it’s supposed to be a satire, but I can’t really figure out what it’s supposed to be satirizing. During the description of the phone call Oedipa receives from Pierce, I was reminded of the many descriptions of the sound the orangutan makes in Murders in the Rue Morgue. I’m not sure if this that clear of a connection but it seems to me that Pierce’s absurd accents and random voices is probably satirizing something. What exactly I’m not sure, but I’m sure we will find out more as we go along.

Another thing that I thought was pretty strange was during Oedipa’s conversation with Roseman, her lawyer. There are a whole two lines dedicated to Roseman asking Oedipa to run away with her, with no buildup of any kind aside from saying he was trying to play footsie on the table. This came out of the blue with very little context and the subject is dropped just as suddenly. I would say this is probably satirizing romance as a whole, as some authors tend to drag these things out, but Pynchon manages to establish the situation, albeit bluntly, in two lines.

The last thing that I wanted to mention was the reference to Cornell on the first page. That really intrigued me, and I hope it shows up more later in the story because otherwise I have no idea why that was included. Pynchon did attend Cornell, so it is possible he just wanted to include his alma mater, but I hope it plays a bigger role in the story.