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This is the Wiki for Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. Besides using the Alphabetical Index and the page-by-page annotation, you can also take a look at The Crying of Lot 49 covers, read the reviews, or provide insights or observations.

And now ... The Movie ...

A shortfilm version of CL49 found on YouTube and created by someone who goes by the handle "filibusterer"... Crying of Lot 49 Film San Jose, California - August 14, 2007 - It turns out that the entire text of The Crying of Lot 49 is being broadcast in semaphore from the top of Adobe's Almaden Towers headquarters. San Jose Semaphore, by artist Ben Rubin, is a permanent public artwork commissioned by Adobe Systems Incorporated in collaboration with the City of San Jose’s Office of Cultural Affair’s Public Art Program. The code was recently cracked by two Silicon Valley tech workers, Mark Snesrud and Bob Mayo. Read more... Santa Barbara, California - Nov 26, 2007 - Postal Horns Moving South!

Vandals tagged the University of California, Santa Barbara campus and parts of Isla Vista over Thanksgiving break, making use of a symbol found in the 1966 Thomas Pynchon novel The Crying of Lot 49. The symbol, which resembles a trumpet, was spray-painted in red at various locations, including South Hall, Manzanita Village and the Daily Nexus advertising office. Read more... and "Spray-Painting Pynchon"

How to Use this Wiki

The Spoiler-Free Annotations by Page allows the reader to look up and contribute allusions and references while reading the book, in a convenient and spoiler-free manner.

Apart from that, it's up to you.

Page by Page Annotations

An alternate form of commentary on the text. The guiding principle of these annotations is to remain spoiler-free, so that readers can follow along without the fear that later parts of the book will be revealed.





Pynchon Wiki Help and Contributor Guidelines

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We have a few conventions we ask that you follow:

When creating a new page, first check to make sure a page/article about what you want to write about hasn't already been created, by checking the list of all Wiki pages on Pynchon Wiki. If a page already exists, please modify that one.

When creating a new page, if its information pertains to one (and only one) specific Pynchon novel, please categorize it with the appropriate identifier. For example, a page pertaining to The Crying of Lot 49, should use the syntax [[Category:CL49]] .

To open a discussion on an individual listing of the Alpha Index or Page by Page Annotations, give it a name that identifies the alpha listing (eg [[Discussion Subject|'''DISCUSSION''']]) and notice that the visible name will be "DISCUSSION" in bold and full caps, so it stands out a bit.

The Fictional Woods - a Pynchon forum.

Featured Article

Modernism v. Postmodernism: The Crying of Lot 49

by Michelle Cannon - Examiner.com

July 19, 2009

The relationship between modernism and postmodernism is often complicated as both genres share certain similarities as well as differences. E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime and Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 are examples of the relationship between these two genres. In both novels, discarded objects play a crucial role in establishing the relationship between modernism and postmodernism. Throughout both of these texts, there are numerous examples of not only discarded objects, but also discarded people and ideas. This recurrent theme intertwines itself within both of these novels and becomes vital to the understanding of the relationship between modernism and postmodernism. This first article will entail a discussion of The Crying of Lot 49, which focuses on the heroine, Oedipa Mass, as she strives to uncover the secrets behind the death of her recently deceased ex-boyfriend after being named the executor of his will. Read the Article...

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