Before the invention of the telephone, people wrote letters to each other to stay in touch. Soldiers wrote letters to their wives and families to express their love, and even today, people write letters to communicate better. Writing is a way of expressing yourself, a way of thinking about what you feel and communicating it to others. In The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon has his characters write letters so that they can better understand each other and also communicate to the reader what is happening in the novel. Indirectly, Pynchon also satirizes the importance of letters and written communication because, in the novel, letters confuse the plot instead of clarifying it. Early in the novel, Oedipa receives a letter that seems clear, but it is the beginning of a mystery that complicates the story and complicates Oedipa's ability to think clearly. As she discovers more about the mystery of the Tristero, she comes across the WASTE mail system. This system forces people to write letters even if they have nothing to say and makes a mockery of the United States Postal Service. Although this novel appears to be an ordinary mystery, its underlying tones of satire, due to communication dysfunctions, are prevalent within Oedipa and in the letters written between the characters and the WASTE postal system. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayOedipa Maas receives a letter stating that she is the legal executor of her ex-boyfriend's estate. It contains relevant information about what happened and what its functions are. For the reader, this is a point of clarification. Although the letters seem concise and precise, it is the beginning of a great conspiracy that Oedipa will eventually uncover. After receiving the letter, she begins to see strange images that don't seem to be related. She talks about Rapunzel, magic and Pierce. It is difficult to understand why a letter gives him such mysterious images, but what seems to be a clear letter to the reader is confusing to Oedipa. She remembers Pierce in her mind, then goes off on a tangent, not recognizing the fact that she's confused over nothing. Pynchon satirizes communication through letters and makes Oedipus react in an unconventional way as she was to have all sorts of revelations. It's hardly about Pierce Inverarity or herself; but about what was left, and yet somehow had stayed away before this? (p10). It seems natural to think about the good times she had with Pierce, but she goes even further. What follows her memories are stories about her days with Pierce that turn into a revelation about herself. She deludes herself into believing that Pierce had no effect on her, but she thinks about him a lot and doesn't even realize how much she thinks about him. She has inner communication problems because she is not true to herself and her feelings. As she imagines Rapunzel in the tower, she thinks: A young girl so captive, having all the time to think, quickly realizes that her tower, its height and its architecture, are only incidental to her ego: that what really keeps her where she is is magic. , anonymous and malicious, visited him from the outside and for no reason? (p12). If she believes she is the captive girl, then she feels trapped in some way and cannot get out, not because of her physical environment, but because something beyond her control traps him there. The only thing she could get trapped in at this pointis to settle Pierce's affairs. For some reason, she feels like she's magically compelled to do this. Obviously, she doesn't understand why Pierce chose her as his executor, and that's why she thinks magic visited her for no reason. The reader also has difficulty communicating because Pynchon does not communicate his thoughts clearly. The story, at first, seems simple, but Oedipa's reaction to the letter complicates what the reader initially thought about the letter. In this way, Pynchon can make a statement about how difficult it is to communicate or that communicating effectively is impossible because we can never really know what anyone else is thinking. It may be satirizing the way people communicate through literature and/or letters. Detective novels generally have the same ending: the detective solves the crime and clues are given throughout. With this mystery, the clues are inconclusive and do not lead to the solution of the crime. Oedipa's understanding of every situation is just out of his reach, just as Pynchon keeps readers' understanding out of reach. Each time we think we know what happened, the book takes a turn in a different direction. As the plot progresses and the mystery unfolds, Oedipa and the reader know less and less what is happening. When Oedipa goes to San Francisco to learn more about the Tristero and WASTE, she meets with John Nefastis to find out if she is sentient, but they end up discussing entropy and communication. To be sentient, she must communicate with the Demon so he tells her: Communication is the key. The Demon transmits its data to the sentient, and the sentient must respond in kind? (p84). To the reader, the whole idea of ​​the machine and the theory of the sentient seems a bit ridiculous, but the novel suggests that it is a serious concept to consider. The idea that communication is key is key, but entropy is not. This statement can be interpreted more broadly to mean that the Pynchon emphasizes the importance of communication in all aspects of life. If communication is not handled correctly, errors and communication problems occur, just like with the machine. If a person cannot communicate properly, the machine will not work. Oedipa does not know if Nefastis is serious or if he is deceiving her. Oedipa does not know, once again, what to believe because what is happening is not clear to her. She is confronted with the idea of ​​entropy, which is new to her, and talks to people she has never met, which would make her doubt what to believe because Nefastis has no credibility with her. Communication is something that takes a lot of work, but even with hard work it may not be achieved. It's very difficult to get your point across, especially with something like entropy. Oedipa tries to communicate with the Demon while Pynchon tries to communicate with us. Letters are the old-fashioned way of communicating, but it is the only way to communicate according to the novel. People can eavesdrop on phone conversations and even open U.S. mail, but they can communicate securely through WASTE. Oedipa overhears a mother saying to her son: Write by WASTE, remember, the government will open it if you use the other one? (p100). Communication through this new system seems to be the only way forward. Pynchon emphasizes the importance of written communication and mocks everything else. Using WASTE in place of the US postal system is a satire on how he believes the postal system is run and since writing is so important we shouldn't leave it to the,.