Chapter 38 - Realities

Summary

As readers approaching a Thomas Pynchon novel for the first time, we have to face his determination to undermine our sense of reality, or destabilize our ontology, as theorists put it. No author can have much hope of our dropping the assumptions we live by simply on a novel’s say-so, but by constantly shoving a variety of alternative types of reality at us, Pynchon irritates and confuses us, but also intrigues us and makes us perhaps a bit less confident of our world picture. We may fear some of his options, but may come to desire some as well. Sometimes Pynchon’s alternative realities superimpose themselves on material existence; other times, they are reached by passing some barrier or going through some portal. Whereas most speculative fiction would treat such portal-transitions with excitement and awareness of the new possibilities, Pynchon’s alternative realities usually cause little excitement and tend to be accepted as just the way things are.