Many sides of Pychon

Oedipa and the “Bordando el Manto Terrestre” Painting

When I first looked at this piece of artwork, I was somewhat confused. I didn’t quite understand what was going on at first but then I studied the painting in greater detail. In the painting, the upside-down, ghostlike figure represents Oedipa. It represents her in a state where everyone else is normal and she’s the only one in a different zone. She almost seems invisible in the picture as well as the end of the first chapter. She’s confused and lost in the world and doesn’t quite know what she wants to do.

TCL 49 vs. “A Journey into the Mind of Watts”

The way Pynchon writes these two pieces are totally different. TCL 49 was a more difficult piece to read versus “Journey…” which was much simpler to understand. In “Journey…”, Pynchon writes about situations actually happening on the west coast, specifically Watts, California opposed to TCL 49 where he has this fictious story that has nothing to do with the major events happening during that time period. He starts off by telling a story of a black man that was killed at the gun hands of a white cop. This story really sets the tone of how this article is going to go. Pychon talks to fluently about the events happening that it’s kind of strange to read about. We’re so used to him ignoring the current events that it sets an informative tone.