The Crying of Lot 49 | Objects, Setting & Important Places

The Crying of Lot 49 Objects/Places

Tristero

Tristero names the mystery which Oedipa spends the entire novel trying to understand. Tristero resembles truth, and points to the sadness occasioned by the loss of truth in modern life, since triste means sad in Spanish. In this modern retelling of the Oedipus myth, Tristero plays the role which fate played in the original. Tristero is a powerful yet invisible force, which cannot be fully comprehended.

Kinneret

Oedipa's home town in Central California stands for all the faceless suburban towns of America, whose endless shopping malls and cookie cutter suburban houses lack history and meaning.

Bordando el Manto Terrestre, a painting by Remedios Varo

This triptych includes a painting of girls in a tower embroidering a tapestry which spills out the windows and becomes reality, depicting the creation of reality.

San Narciso

A town in the greater Los Angeles area which embodies all that is bad about modern life, including sprawl, corporate greed, personal narcissism, excessive technology, and media saturation.

Echo Courts Motel

This tawdry...
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