Mark Snesrud and Bob Mayo took on the public art challenge, leading them to W.A.S.T.E. cash on some fancy radios, find hidden XML files, use computer programs to generate a 4,142 page equation that explained the signals but signified nothing, and finally crack the code to find the building is continually broadcasting the text of Thomas Pynchon’s “The Crying of Lot 49.” (Are they paying royalties on this or just betting that Pynchon is too cool to sue?) The whole explanation of how they broke the code is in this 18-page document (in PDF form, of course) ^
Lest you forget, there’s this old page… San Narciso Community College Thomas Pynchon Page. Circa 1994, updated 1997.
Thomas Pynchon captured the imagination of many of us, but probably no work was more influential than The Crying of Lot 49 because in this short book, he stopped the goofy metaphor-play and tackled industrial society with a biting critique of the loneliness and randomness of survival in this time. It always made me think of a postmodern analysis of The Great Gatsby without the delicious layers of irony. It’s the clearest-sighted of his books and one of the most loved as a result.