A Parallel Story

The way in which The Crying of Lot 49 was written and when it was written are the answers to both why this book was chosen for RHE309K and how it relates to the Vietnam War. The book is written in a very distracting and confusing way; which was all part of Pynchon’s plan to further satire the chaos of the era. This era, the early 1960s, was a time of confusion for the United states, not only about why we were fighting in the Vietnam War and distrust of the government, but also with cultural issues such as the increasing popularity of drugs. This book brings the large-scale chaos of the Vietnam War years down to the level of one life, Oedipa Maas. Her experiences are parallel to what Americas were experiencing during this time. What is even more interesting is that Pynchon writes in the play The Courier’s Tragedy to be parallel to Oedipa’s story. The more and more she tries to figure out her life by digging deeper into the meaning of Tristero and the W.A.S.T.E. mail system, the further she gets from the truth and the more messy her life becomes. Similarly, the harder the United States tried to contain communism, the result was merely more deaths and more loss of faith in the government by US citizens.

The way The Crying of Lot 49 was written further describes the lack of communication between the presidents, congress, the American people, and other countries. Just as the secret W.A.S.T.E. postal service was formed in the book, the American people often took maters into their own hands, not trusting their government during the years of the Vietnam War and have arguably continued some level of skepticism about government since. Once one is pulled into the chaos, it is difficult to pull back out of it; as Oedipa demonstrates as she continues to search for answers even after she realizes that the whole thing had most likely been a joke. The United States of the 1960s saw themselves spinning in a downward spiral, but were helpless to stop spinning. Americans were like the Oedipa who sat concentrating on the Maxwell’s Demon trying to move the pistil. No matter how much she wanted the pistil to move, something that is humanly impossible, is still impossible. Americans in the 1960s perhaps tried their best to fix the problems already in play, but nothing so damaging can be fixed with a snap of a finger.

The reader never receives a clear answer as to whether Oedipa’s conspiracy theory about the W.A.S.T.E. post system is true or not. This plays into how the Vietnam War and effects of the war never really had an end in the minds of Americans. The War ended with Vietnam in the same position toward communism as when the war began, just as the play leaves Oedipa not knowing any more about the W.A.S.T.E. postal service than when the book began. However, along the way life-damaging affects had taken a toll on both Americans and Oedipa. Americans had lost many lives in the war, just as Oedipa had lost friends in her search for the truth. American’s trust of the government had forever been damaged, just as Oedipa’s trust in the postal service had been damaged. And finally, Americans were left alone, their pride destroyed, not knowing what step to take next, just as Oedipa was left isolated not sure whether she was crazy or not.