Crying of Lot 49?

This text was by far a challenge to say the least. Not only were the paragraphs wordy but the content was by far confusing and near impossible to keep up with for the entire reading of this novel. After reading the first page I was thinking to myself, "I can do this, not too bad," but upon turning page after page I soon learn that this will be no ordinary novel. My first glimpse of this sudden reality was the peculiar naming of the characters. For one, the name Oedipa seemed to sound vaguely familiar, and I soon realized it was familiar because of the strong relation that the name has to the famous Shakespeare character Oedipus. Then we go on in the novel to encounter such characters as Mucho, Dr. Hilarious, and Mike Fallopian. Therefore, as reading this novel I was hoping to come across some type of correlation and analogy between the names and an underlined theme or message throughout the story but found no connection, only adding to the novel's satiral value. However, aside from the obvious allusions to the wars mentioned here and there in the chapters, it could be concluded that this novel was picked for this class because in rhetoric we all tell stories, argue opinions, pose suggestions and offer literary analysis of many of the texts that we encounter, and this novel was no exception. It forces us to think (rather deeply, i must say) and attempt to decipher and come to conclusions about the imposed meaning of the texts that we analyze. In this case, not only was the story difficult and frustrating, not to mention drawn out, the way that the information is presented is a journey all in itself. I found this text difficult to keep up with and often times got so lost in the words that I completely forgot what it was that those difficult words were describing. In this text, I believe that as the reader manuevers through the text just as Oedipa did, with confusion and by paying as much attention to detail as possible. Then just as the story ends and Oedipa is about to get her final ending with the solving of the mysterious informed bidder,we are left with the uncertainty of a solved mystery as the story ends. This could certainly be compared to the feeling that Oedipa might have felt as she sat awaiting the crying of lot 49, a hope for a resolution that may not come. However, upon realizing this, we also can not ignore that the audiences suspense is cut short by the resolution that certainly does not come. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but notice that the way that we as students have been trained to analyze text is very structured, and that was exactly what I found myself attemping to do throughout the entire novel. Trying to find allusions and correlations between the novel and my sense of reality but found not much more than big pile of confusion and wordy sentances, and few conclusions along the way...although that's more than I can say for this novel.