New Close Readings of The Crying of Lot 49

Kohn, Robert E.

Southern Illinois University

A strange woman walks into church in the middle of a prayer – to get out of the rain, reasons Reverend John Ames. Sixty-seven years old, he is captivated by the young woman, some 40 years his junior, and not many months later marries her. Robert E. Kohn, literary critic, argues that Ames knew this woman when she was a girl, knew her past "to death," as the narrator claims, but for all purposes remained "completely ignorant of it." This is because the truth is couched in secrecy. As the secrecy unfolds, "this poor gray ember of Creation," which Ames calls himself, "turns to radiance."

Radiance and Secrecy in Marilynne Robinson's Gilead

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

<p>This book provides numerous new interpretations of Thomas Pynchon's THE CRYING OF LOT 49, arguably the most epistemologically complex novel, page for page, ever written. One of the continuing surprises of the 1960s was that such a novel was destined to become a blockbuster. The continual flow of new editions demonstrates that THE CRYING OF LOT 49 has remained a major seller well into the first decade of the 21st century. It is not surprising that J. Kerry Grant reported that some "Forty years after its first publication, [THE CRYING OF LOT 49] is still selling at the rate of between fifteen and twenty thousand copies annually." Kohn's close readings of Pynchon's novel draw on writings by Henry Adams, Roland Barthes, Rachel Carson, Charles Darwin, Loren Eiseley, W.Y. Evans-Wentz, E.M. Forster, Don DeLillo, F.R. Leavis,  Paul Virilio and Jerry Wilkerson.  </p>

Pollution and the Firm is an important new book which presents new concepts of the marginal cost of substituting non-pollutive for pollutive goods. Technical in its approach, it complements the other literature in the field and will be a significant contribution to the understanding of microeconomic issues in pollution control. The book focuses on three main concepts: substitutions in consumption, emission abatement and exposure avoidance. The first part considers the adjustment of the scope and combination of goods produced as a method for controlling pollution. The author argues that pollution is controlled by increasing the relative price of the polluting good in the production process, thereby reducing demand and subsequent production of the good. In the second part the discussion is extended to include the possibilities of preventing or abating emissions in relation to three models: first, pollution prevention when non-polluting inputs and processes are substituted for pollutants; second, when a proportion of the polluting output is recycled rather than being disregarded; and finally, end-of-pipe abatement where additional technology is used. In conclusion the author assesses the extent to which pollution damage is controlled by avoidance of emissions, with avoidance being modeled as an add-on technology with its own returns to scale. Pollution and the Firm combines theories of the firm with a welfare economics approach to pollution control, and will be welcomed by environmental and resource economists as well as microeconomists with an interest in environmental issues.

Pollution and the Firm (New Horizons in Environmental Economics series)

Business & Money

Economics

Edward Elgar Publishing

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Books by Kohn, Robert E.