"A number of frail girls... prisoners in the top room of a circular tower, embroidering a kind of tapestry which spilled out the slit windows and into a void, seeking hopelessly to fill the void: for all the other buildings and creatures, all the waves, ships and forests of the earth were contained in this tapestry, and the tapestry was the world" -- Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
Last night while thinking of tonight's author, I picked up my copy of The Crying of Lot 49 and reread the first and second chapters. I am looking forward to reading a few more chapters tonight. Now there is a great book. Every sentence, every word points towards a larger meaning, some subtext or another, that is as ambiguous as it is meaningful. Flamboyant character's names such as Pierce Inverarity, Dr. Hilarius, and Oedipa Maas (not to forget "Mucho" Maas) are carefully chosen to create humor and meaning. The whole book. If I had to choose one word to describe Thomas Pynchon's writing style in The Crying of Lot 49 it would be meaningful.
Below is a painting done by Remedios Varo that plays a role in the book:
