Just like Oedipais overwhelmed with evidence and information, this entire book is clogged with vague clues, ambiguous metaphors, and hazy references. Therefore I find it quite appropriate that neither the protagonist nor the readers are given complete closure at the end of the novel. Since the book is filled with empty symbols and meanings, the empty ending should not surprise us. The meaning behind this vague ending is the same maxim that Pynchon has been trying to alert us to the entire novel…question everything! In the final paragraph, as Oedipa waits for the auction, symbolic of the acronym We Await Silent Tristero's Empire, she is still questioning and searching. This is obviously unlike most novels where the protagonist’s quests ends with the final chapter. We are given little satisfaction and solace which is exactly what Pynchon wants us to feel. He wants us to thirst for more knowledge and adventure and to never settle within the tower walls or feel insulated from the outside world.
Pynchon, much like Oedipa in the Rapunzel myth in chapter 1, embroiders fictions in order to create order and make sense of the world. It is impossible to tell how true such fictions are, or what their ultimate meaning is. This is true both for Oedipa encountering fictions (perhaps all controlled by Inverarity), as well as for the reader encountering Pynchon’s text. Perhaps a lesson of Pynchon’s work is that it is far easier to create baroque fictions against a backdrop of grey indeterminacy than to communicate the unity and harmony suggested by so many writers before the late 19th century.
Pynchon is so obviously toying with his readers—humorously, but the fabrications take their toll on the readers’ credulity. Mike Fallopian cannot be a real character’s name. While that is the point, it also detracts from the reading experience. It is self-conscious writing. We keep reading (if we do, Pynchon’s naming scheme repels some readers), because Pynchon makes us laugh, creates...