Postmodern uncanny for existence Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49

ABSTRACT

The focus of this paper is on literal death— chiefly that of Pierce Inverarity but also including Randolph Driblette’s suicide— and the remnants thereof.  The novel parodies and thematically acknowledges the death of metanarratives, including that of the aesthetic. This section asserts that an ever-present sense of loss and the accompanying continuous mourning are productive elements in the text. While The Crying of Lot 49 does indeed recognize the death of all metanarratives, the aesthetic included the question of mourning. There is no completed mourning in this novel. Its protagonist, who carries out an inconclusive quest for conspiratorial meaning, is not free from history.

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