The Other Side of Divinity in Pynchon’s Fictional World

This paper purports to reveal the way in which divinity in the American culture lie at the heart of Thomas Pynchon’s theory of conceiving the American global universe. The researcher illustrates how Pynchon creates tropes out of diverse material and uses them to constitute the larger design of American spatial realm. To prove this, it is essential to show how Pynchon’s metaphors reflect a world which is independent of our perceptions. The purpose to be achieved is to envision how such a spatial construction can be constructed and maintained in a work which exists as a verbal construction. Accordingly, three fundamental questions need to be addressed: a) how can it be argued for the spatial metaphoric representation? and b) in what way did Pynchon reflect upon the trope of metaphor? To unveil these blind spots, the researcher explores the concept of space and its affinity with metaphor in order to underline the ambiguous postmodern view which renders irrelevant the distinction between life and art. Embarking upon this ground, the researcher will show how Pynchon’s metaphor paradoxically provides a way to think about the literal and the metaphoric. In the light of the previous results, the ultimate conclusion is that what American metaphoric discourse has to offer is not unequivocal revelation, but necessary equivocation. The focus is on Pynchon’s world of fiction with specific reference on The Crying of Lot 49. The text cannot make up its mind, metaphors can reach a reality beyond language, and more fundamentally, cannot resolve whether the endeavour to do so is insane or inspired, divine or demonic. George Lakoff’s and Mark Johnson’s reflections on the concept of metaphor are significant as they provide the researcher with a theoretical background of this paper.