[Posted by SAVANNAH and MIKAYLA]
Do you think the names in the novel have any significance? Do they provide any significant symbolic meaning for the characters and places they represent or are they simply employed by Pynchon as a means of comedic word play? You may want to consider Oedipa Maas, Mucho Maas, San Narciso, Dr. Hilarius, Mike Fallopian, Pierce Inverarity, and Metzger.
In general, I am not really one to read too much into things so I don’t really think that the names in this novel mean anything in particular. The names in this novel just seem so ridiculous that they could not possibly mean anything. I feel like Pynchon may have used these names just to be ironic and show that sometimes authors/readers may put too much meaning into names. People are able to interpret things that they read pretty much however they want, so there could be many interpretations of the answer to this question. Generally I wouldn’t read into the names, but if I do there are some connections that I could make. For example, the name Dr. Hilarius for a psychiatrist is just about the most ridiculous name I have ever heard of. His name is fairly similar to the word hilarious, which is amusing because usually we do not associate our doctors as being funny people. We expect them to be serious and respectable, not goofy and childish. I feel like Pynchon is just mocking the naming of the characters. In addition, the main character’s name Oedipa Maas, sounds very similar to the name of Freud’s theory of the Oedipus complex. This is also satirical because the Oedipus complex refers to the desire of the son to kill the father and marry the mother, and Oedipa is a woman. It just seems like Pynchon is connecting the names to the opposite of what the character should actually be satirical. However, like I said before, even though I have made these connections I don’t necessarily think that we are meant to.
ReplyDeletePrior to reading your question, I most definitely hadn’t put any thought into the meaning of the characters names. I then decided to do a little research to see if maybe there was a deeper meaning behind the absurd names selected by Pynchon. The first name that caught my eye was Pierce Inverarity. It seems oddly ironic that the verb “to pierce” means to make a hole with a sharp instrument. With this in mind, in the novel Pierce is a dead man, and his own name is a verb that can describe the cause of someone’s death. I also found it interesting that Pierce’s last name, Inverarity, slightly resembles the word inherit. This one may be a little bit of a stretch, but it is possible that Pynchon chose this last name because Oedipa inherited Pierce’s estate.
ReplyDeleteThe next name that stood out to me the most was Mucho Maas. This particular name caught my attention because I did take Spanish in high school so I knew that “mucho mas” meant “much more”. This seems ironic because Mucho Maas ends up going crazy on LSD at the end of the novel. It is almost as though he because “much more” to handle.
Another name that caught my eye was Oedipa. This name looks especially like the word Oedipus. In my Psychology class last semester we learned about Oedipus Complex. Which is the psychoanalytical theory that children at a certain age have a subconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex. This seemed fitting for the main character Oedipa because she has this sexual desire for Metzger. Yet, in the middle of the novel he then disappears just as a child’s desire for the opposite sex parent eventually disappears.
I am not sure if Pnychon had the intention of these meanings when he wrote the novel, but this is all I could really come up with after reading your question. It definitely is something worth talking about because these names do seem to be extremely obscure.
I think the names Pynchon used in The Crying of Lot 49 had a comedic effect, but I didn’t really think they had a greater meaning behind them. Dr. Hilarius’ name was very ironic because the word hilarious means “extremely amusing” or “boisterously merry”, but his line of work as a therapist and Oedipa’s impression of him are neither amusing nor merry. The naming of Oedipa is even more interesting to me because she is a girl, so she doesn’t have a role in the Oedipus complex and there is no Oedipus Complex that involves a son, a husband, and a wife in this book. In that sense, I think I also would view Oedipa’s name to serve the purpose of being comical, unless Oedipa could be referring to her uselessness within that structure. The naming of Mucho Maas was pretty funny to me as well. I think this, along with his dark hair and his description imply that he could be latino, but I also find this nickname to be ironic. In Spanish, “mucho más” means much more or a lot more. Maybe, Pynchon is commenting on Mucho’s feelings when he discusses how everyone in the car shop has so little- the opposite of “much more”. He feels sorry for cheating poor people into buying bad cars when they don’t have a lot of things to begin with. Mucho is also very similar to the word “macho” and Mucho definitely does not have the qualities of a man who is aggressive or takes pride in his masculinity.
ReplyDeleteOverall, the naming of the character’s seemed to be intentionally over the top, and, for the most part, reading into them did not help me understand the characters better. I don’t think there is a deep meaning behind all of these names, but I think that Pynchon intentionally uses irony when naming his characters to create a comedic effect and perhaps stress what the characters lack. For instance, Dr. Hilarius is not hilarious in any way, Oedipa can never be a main part of the Oedipus Complex because she is not a man, and Mucho does not act in a stereotypically masculine way.