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eli's picture

Importance of Conspiracy

Submitted by eli on Mon, 04/23/2007 - 3:06am.

Taking a step back from the book a bit, the underlying current is one of trying to determine what is real, and what is not. Oedipa spends the entire course of the novel trying to figure out the Tristero are real. Which is why we have the entire title for the book; her necessity to try to determine the authenticty of the Tristero leads her to cry for lot 49, the stamp collection.

So again, taking a step back, what does this have to do with science? With feminism? With science, we spend our time trying to figure out what is real and what is not. We need tangible proof to determine authenticity. So often we forget that the belief that there is something whose existence we can prove is relaly what drives us, NOT necessarily the object itself. It is the pursuit, not the evidence, not the Truth, that really makes science what it is.

I think it's important to note that the protagonist is a woman. How many of the other characters are women? Exactly. The people who tote her along on this journey are all men. What does -that- say for the feminist perspective?

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