<<In response to Mario Taboada:
I see plenty of "the atmosphere typical of noir" in Chapter
5 of
"Lot
49" . . . Oedipa's paranoid peregrinations among the
down-and-outers of
San Francisco. I take it you would put this somewhere
else
genretically--please elaborate.>>
I would place "Lot 49" squarely in the realm of
whimsical-absurd
fantasy, alongside much of the work of people like Italo
Calvino, Julio
Cortạr, Dino Buzzati, Donald Barthelme, and Raymond Queneau -
or
Tati's film "Playtime". The element of danger is not present
in
Pynchon's novel (at least, I don't see it), and Oedipa is
neither a
heroine or an anti-heroine but a bemused observer. There is
no crime or
hint of one in sight. There is no real conflict and almost no
action.
There is no anger.
<<Would you agree that "the atmosphere" pervades the
works of certain
postmodern (or New Wave) songwriters such as Stanard Ridgway
and Elvis
Costello?>>
I am remote from such music, so I can't address this.
Regards,
Mario Taboada
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