When mentioned within the book, The Courier’s Tragedy reminded me of two texts I’ve had the chance to read previously: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Slaughterhouse-Five. We can recall from Shakespeare’s play the fact of “the play within the play”, where the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe is performed within the play. Meanwhile, Pynchon alludes to this piece in a similar manner that Vonnegut did in his own work. Here, Miles refers to it as “the same kind of kinky thing, you know. Bones of lost battalion in lake fished up, turned into charcoal” (48), creating a similar effect to the way Elliot Rosewater would refer to The Brothers Karamazov amongst other novels within the novel. Interestingly enough, the play reflects similar themes and issues as The Crying Of Lot 49. In his novel, Pynchon is constantly satirizing communication, which indeed is an issue present in this “play within the play”.
The events in The Courier’s Tragedy mirror those in the larger story, creating a similar effect to that of The Brothers Karamazov in Slaughterhouse-Five, or Pyramus and Thisbe in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The connection becomes evident at the conclusion of Act IV of the play when Niccolò says: “No hallowed skein of stars can ward, I trow,/ Who’s once been set his tryst with Trystero” (58). Trystero might have echoed in Oedipa’s mind the same amount of times a déjà vu echoes in yours, or even mine. It’s quite ironic that Oedipa, who had entered the play with thoughts about Trystero and not charcoaled bones, encounters with the term. The reader itself is in a similar position to that of Oedipa: he knows not about the whole mystery of Trystero. It’s interesting how everything connects to everything at this point: the story to the play, the play to the story, the play to Oedipa, Oedipa to the reader. Still, a new mystery is present to the reader: a mirror reflecting the story, a play inducing a mystery, and a play within the play.
The events in The Courier’s Tragedy mirror those in the larger story, creating a similar effect to that of The Brothers Karamazov in Slaughterhouse-Five, or Pyramus and Thisbe in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The connection becomes evident at the conclusion of Act IV of the play when Niccolò says: “No hallowed skein of stars can ward, I trow,/ Who’s once been set his tryst with Trystero” (58). Trystero might have echoed in Oedipa’s mind the same amount of times a déjà vu echoes in yours, or even mine. It’s quite ironic that Oedipa, who had entered the play with thoughts about Trystero and not charcoaled bones, encounters with the term. The reader itself is in a similar position to that of Oedipa: he knows not about the whole mystery of Trystero. It’s interesting how everything connects to everything at this point: the story to the play, the play to the story, the play to Oedipa, Oedipa to the reader. Still, a new mystery is present to the reader: a mirror reflecting the story, a play inducing a mystery, and a play within the play.
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