**6. Blend analysis**

In the following, I present the narrative context of the blend together with references to the conceptual metaphors (in capital letters) that guide meaning: In the sixth chapter, the main character Oedipa Maas has lost the ones who could have help her in her search for meaning, her psychiatrist is mad, her husband is under the effects of LSD, her lover Metzger is now with an underage girl, and Driblette, the director of the play, has died. For this reason, Oedipa keeps on feeling she is lost: LOST IS BEING ALONE (235).1 Oedipa attends then to Driblette's funeral; Driblette has committed suicide by drowning in the Pacific. Besides his tomb, Oedipa tries to communicate with him: PROTEIN IN AN OBJECT OEDIPA TRIES TO REACH (240), WINGED SHAPE IS AN OBJECT INSIDE QUIESCENCE, QUIESCENCE IS AN OBJECT INSIDE PROTEIN (239, 240, 243). Oedipa waits for some information to get out from the earth, but nothing happens. In the labyrinth where information dwells (the reason why Driblette added two lines about Trystero in the theater play), also dwells the reason of his suicide: LABYRINTH IS A CONTAINER FOR INFORMATION (248). Again, information's meaning is unreachable.

The possibility of having found something real in Trystero is, for Oedipa, STUMBLE ONTO A DREAM, ONTO A NETWORK OF COMMUNICATION, ONTO ALTERNATIVE TO EXITLESSNESS, ONTO ALTERNATIVE TO THE ABSENCE OF SURPRISE. However, there exist three equally possible alternatives: that it all is a hallucination, a plot, or that she is imagining there is a plot. When these four mental spaces are projected in the blend, as we can see below, we find that Oedipa is, in the blended space, in a void, EMPTY SPACE IS A DIFFICULT SITUATION (262) (**Figure 1**).

In the blend, the four elements of the inputs have the same potential to be real, but each mental space changes regarding the idea Oedipa has about them: reality, hallucination, plot, or imagining a plot. In the selective projection, these four ideas about the mental spaces projected in the blend create a new one: a void. Oedipa feels lost: ORIENTATION IS AN OBJECT OEDIPA LOSES (266). All around her is flat and vast, without mountains or borders, and the limits of San Narciso have disappeared: SAN NARCISO IS A LOST OBJECT, THE RESIDUE OF SAN NARCISO IS INSIDE OEDIPA (268, 269). This way, SAN NARCISO IS A BOUNDLESS CONTAINER (270). Without borders for the land or for Pierce's legacy, the continent is a continuum: AMERICA IS A LEGACY (272). As in the beginning with the tower, the disappearance of borders and frontiers constructs a feeling of disorientation. Trystero is coded information in the legacy: TRYSTERO IS ENCRYPTED INFORMATION (276); a conspiracy, TRYSTERO IS A PARANOIA AGAINST OEDIPA (279): or something Oedipa found by chance, TRYSTERO IS AN OBJECT (398) FOUND BY OEDIPA (280). The waiting of Oedipa becomes now the waiting for the end of symmetry between the possibilities of the inputs in the previous blend. Oedipa is not able yet to decipher information: OEDIPA IS INSIDE A COMPUTER WITH ENDLESS ONES AND ZEROES (296). Behind the city streets, there is concealed meaning, CITY STREETS ARE A HYEROGLYPH (297), either meaning or just the earth: CITY STREETS ARE A HIDING PLACE FOR MEANING (298, 299), CITY STREETS ARE A HIDING PLACE FOR EARTH (298, 300). Thus, all that Oedipa has experienced can have a relevant meaning or just what it seems, and she does not understand any of them: REALITY OF EVENTS

**9**

**7. Concluding remarks**

*Double Scope Blend ([30], p. 397).*

**Figure 1.**

from a phenological perspective" ([11], p. 242).

*Cognitive Semiotics and Conceptual Blend: A Case Study from* The Crying of Lot 49

ARE ARRANGED ONES AND ZEROES (304). If Trystero does not exist, Oedipa is then in a state of paranoia: OEDIPA IS AN ENTITY INSIDE ECSTASY, ECSTASY IS A CONTAINER MOVING AROUND PARANOIA (305, 306, 307). If there is no Trystero in America, BEYOND AMERICA IS TRYSTERO OR AMERICA (308, 309), then there is just America. In the case that the last option is the real one, Oedipa can only live in it as someone separated from a world she does not understand. For Oedipa, the possibility of a hidden meaning she cannot reach is better than reality. At the end of the novel, Oedipa goes to the auction of the stamps lot, where she is told that someone very interested in getting them is going. Oedipa sits and waits.

Meaning integration is essential in order to understand human cognition, and narratives are highly complex poetic acts in which new relations and meanings can emerge. If we consider the literary text to be a poetic act, a dynamic open auto-organized system which is dissipative, embodied, situated, distributed, and synergic, the theoretical approaches to it must be inclusive and dynamic. The theories applied, conceptual metaphor and conceptual blend, are valuable models to study poetic acts as a basic feature of what makes us humans. As we can read in the article *Making Sense of a Blend* (Brandt and Brandt)*,* "the method is to slow down our imagination so we can describe how a meaning is arrived at cognitively,

By integrating in an interactive continuum mind-body-world, we can recognize the biological and evolutionary anchor of our thoughts, creativity, and imagination: the biological anchorage of meaning. Further studies in cognitive semiotics are needed to conform to the theoretical background for this ambitious enterprise.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92606*

<sup>1</sup> The number of each conceptual metaphor mentioned alludes to the numbers in the original list created in my thesis [28]. Please refer to the document in order to check the linguistic metaphorical expressions of each conceptual metaphor and their conceptual mappings.

*Cognitive Semiotics and Conceptual Blend: A Case Study from* The Crying of Lot 49 *DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92606*

**Figure 1.** *Double Scope Blend ([30], p. 397).*

*Cognitive and Intermedial Semiotics*

LOST IS BEING ALONE (235).1

SITUATION (262) (**Figure 1**).

In the following, I present the narrative context of the blend together with references to the conceptual metaphors (in capital letters) that guide meaning: In the sixth chapter, the main character Oedipa Maas has lost the ones who could have help her in her search for meaning, her psychiatrist is mad, her husband is under the effects of LSD, her lover Metzger is now with an underage girl, and Driblette, the director of the play, has died. For this reason, Oedipa keeps on feeling she is lost:

has committed suicide by drowning in the Pacific. Besides his tomb, Oedipa tries to communicate with him: PROTEIN IN AN OBJECT OEDIPA TRIES TO REACH (240), WINGED SHAPE IS AN OBJECT INSIDE QUIESCENCE, QUIESCENCE IS AN OBJECT INSIDE PROTEIN (239, 240, 243). Oedipa waits for some information to get out from the earth, but nothing happens. In the labyrinth where information dwells (the reason why Driblette added two lines about Trystero in the theater play), also dwells the reason of his suicide: LABYRINTH IS A CONTAINER FOR

The possibility of having found something real in Trystero is, for Oedipa, STUMBLE ONTO A DREAM, ONTO A NETWORK OF COMMUNICATION, ONTO ALTERNATIVE TO EXITLESSNESS, ONTO ALTERNATIVE TO THE ABSENCE OF SURPRISE. However, there exist three equally possible alternatives: that it all is a hallucination, a plot, or that she is imagining there is a plot. When these four mental spaces are projected in the blend, as we can see below, we find that Oedipa is, in the blended space, in a void, EMPTY SPACE IS A DIFFICULT

In the blend, the four elements of the inputs have the same potential to be real, but each mental space changes regarding the idea Oedipa has about them: reality, hallucination, plot, or imagining a plot. In the selective projection, these four ideas about the mental spaces projected in the blend create a new one: a void. Oedipa feels lost: ORIENTATION IS AN OBJECT OEDIPA LOSES (266). All around her is flat and vast, without mountains or borders, and the limits of San Narciso have disappeared: SAN NARCISO IS A LOST OBJECT, THE RESIDUE OF SAN NARCISO IS INSIDE OEDIPA (268, 269). This way, SAN NARCISO IS A BOUNDLESS CONTAINER (270). Without borders for the land or for Pierce's legacy, the continent is a continuum: AMERICA IS A LEGACY (272). As in the beginning with the tower, the disappearance of borders and frontiers constructs a feeling of disorientation. Trystero is coded information in the legacy: TRYSTERO IS ENCRYPTED INFORMATION (276); a conspiracy, TRYSTERO IS A PARANOIA AGAINST OEDIPA (279): or something Oedipa found by chance, TRYSTERO IS AN OBJECT (398) FOUND BY OEDIPA (280). The waiting of Oedipa becomes now the waiting for the end of symmetry between the possibilities of the inputs in the previous blend. Oedipa is not able yet to decipher information: OEDIPA IS INSIDE A COMPUTER WITH ENDLESS ONES AND ZEROES (296). Behind the city streets, there is concealed meaning, CITY STREETS ARE A HYEROGLYPH (297), either meaning or just the earth: CITY STREETS ARE A HIDING PLACE FOR MEANING (298, 299), CITY STREETS ARE A HIDING PLACE FOR EARTH (298, 300). Thus, all that Oedipa has experienced can have a relevant meaning or just what it seems, and she does not understand any of them: REALITY OF EVENTS

<sup>1</sup> The number of each conceptual metaphor mentioned alludes to the numbers in the original list created in my thesis [28]. Please refer to the document in order to check the linguistic metaphorical expressions

of each conceptual metaphor and their conceptual mappings.

INFORMATION (248). Again, information's meaning is unreachable.

Oedipa attends then to Driblette's funeral; Driblette

**6. Blend analysis**

**8**

ARE ARRANGED ONES AND ZEROES (304). If Trystero does not exist, Oedipa is then in a state of paranoia: OEDIPA IS AN ENTITY INSIDE ECSTASY, ECSTASY IS A CONTAINER MOVING AROUND PARANOIA (305, 306, 307). If there is no Trystero in America, BEYOND AMERICA IS TRYSTERO OR AMERICA (308, 309), then there is just America. In the case that the last option is the real one, Oedipa can only live in it as someone separated from a world she does not understand. For Oedipa, the possibility of a hidden meaning she cannot reach is better than reality. At the end of the novel, Oedipa goes to the auction of the stamps lot, where she is told that someone very interested in getting them is going. Oedipa sits and waits.
