The Crying of Lot 49

David Cowart’s essay on “Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 and The Paintings of Remedios Varo” describe complex reasoning as well as historical documentation of various forms of artistic expression. Some examples are the question of the actual existence of Bordando el Manto Terrestre, a painting by Remedios Varo, as well as many intriguing works by Varo such as the Invocation, that have a close resemblance to Pynchon’s novel.
Although many critics and scholars describe the actual imagery, symbolism, and other literary devices in Varo’s painting, the question of its actual existence is still a question. Pynchon’s distinct parallelism and “similarities of atmosphere” seem t...