Thomas Pynchon's Philosopher Detectives: An Investigation into the Epistemic Cyborg

Thomas Pynchon's novels have puzzled audiences for decades, in the same way his conspiracy plots lead his characters into labyrinthine networks of events and people. These two novels feature female detective protagonists pursuing elusive secrets and conspiracies while struggling with technological advancement that is altering the world they think they know. These detectives are Oedipa Maas in The Crying ofLot49 (1966) and Maxine Tarnow in Bleeding Edge (201 3). The Crying of Lot 49 is set in the Cold War mid-1960's, while Bleeding Edge begins in April of2001, and ventures through the events of September 11th, 2001. Pynchon places his detectives in these volatile eras so that they might serve to immerse the reader, enabling her then to understand the techno-social developments of the present. As the characters assimilate their new experiences into an intelligible design, so too does the reader need to augment his epistemological framework.