Satire Of Thomas Pynchon Essay

A perfect orb of light, ordered and solid, gradually, it begins to grow into an illumination, a ray of light; then, seemingly all at once, a blinding white flash bursts forth encompassing everything and affecting nothing. Time and entropy correlate directly meaning the universe is constantly devolving towards increased randomness and disorder. Thomas Pynchon’s novels are reflective of a disordered world impossible to understand. Bridging satire with a plethora of scientific, historic, and cultural references, Pynchon, the impressionist, paints a picture of the uncertainties and meaninglessness of life events by highlighting common themes of internal instability within his characters.
Traditional satire consists of critiques by the author, generally through their characters’ experiences, with the intent of improving society. Pynchon presents hollow satire where the search for a deeper meaning is met with disappointment such as in the naming of his characters. Literary critic Alfred Macadam interprets that Oedipa Maas, the protagonist in The Crying of Lot 49,
For instance, Oedipa’s husband works at a radio station called “KCUF” (Pynchon 6). For skim readers, the name just registers as another of Pynchon’s ridiculous creations but the name in itself is a parody because the title is really “fuck” spelt backwards. There is no meaning, it does not further the plot, as Macadam says, “it is merely a part of the text, not something to be taken in isolation.” In this way, there is no traditional satirical purpose of trying to enact change. In fact, there’s really no purpose at all other than for entertainment. This one instance is one of many throughout all of Pynchon’s novels, which create his ironic writing style and establish a sort of bizarre humor. Another example of his outlandish humor is the famous scene from Gravity’s Rainbow where an octopus attacks