Chapter 6 of The Crying of Lot 49

            Chapter six of The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon is the final chapter in the novel, and like most final chapters wraps up the story, or at least tries too.  It is in this chapter that the reader learns that the title is related to the auctioning off of Pierce Inverarity’s stamp collection (it is revealed in the last few pages that “an auctioneer ‘cries’ a sale,” thus the title can be interpreted as “the selling of Lot 49;” lot 49 being Pierce Inverarity’s stamp collection at the auction).  We also learn in the final chapter that the acronym “W.A.S.T.E” stands for “We Await Silent Tristero’s Empire,” as it is presented in an old American stamp stumbled a pun by Genghis Cohen (a stamp collector who earlier in the novel discovers some of the stamps in Pierce’s collection are forgeries with intentional mistakes or things added such as the muted horn).  Tristero, the subject of Oedipa’s obsession, is somewhat explained in this chapter.  Its history is long, and mingled with assumptions and educated guesses due to the fact that it was a secrete society of mail carriers which migrated to America from Europe.  As Oedipa searches and searches for information on the society, she finds that all of the places and people associated with Tristero are connected to Pierce Inverarity.  Oedipa feels completely isolated:

              “They are stripping away from me, she said subvocally – feeling like a fluttering curtain in a very high window, moving up to then out over the abyss – they are stripping away, one by one, my men.  My shrink, pursued by Israelis, had gone mad; my husband, on LSD, gropes like a child further and further into the rooms and endless rooms of the elaborate candy house of himself and away, hopelessly away, from what has passed, I was hoping forever, for love; my one extra marital fella has eloped with a depraved 15-year-old; my best guide back to the Trystero has taken a Brody.  Where am I?”

            This passage, early in chapter 6, really describes Oedipa’s depressed, lonely feeling.  The reader perceives Oedipa’s quest as hopeless.  It is this feeling of unresolved hopelessness that drives me as a reader to dislike this book.  I wanted answers as a reader; I wanted to know more about Tristero.  Was it all a hoax?  Or was there really a secrete society of mail carriers?  Was Pierce Inverarity the ringleader of this underground cult?  And the burning question as to why Pierce assigned his now married, ex-girl-friend, to be the executor of his will, is still unanswered.