THE CRYING OF LOT 19
ìWeíre in luck. Loren Passerine, the finest auctioneer in the West, will be crying today.î
ìWill be what?î
ìWe say an auctioneer ëcriesí a sale,î Cohen said. ìYour fly is open,î whispered Oedipa.
-Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49Rather than put Bernard OíGormanís farmhouse and land on the auction block and leave its fate to shady real estate developers, why not turn Lot 19 into a compound for his family? The land could be subdivided into eight parcels, just as Antoine Renaud subdivided his land in the mid-1800s. Of course, Antoineís simple slicing of the land into parallel, linear ribbons would not do here. A more complex mathematical model is necessary. First of all, the 8 siblings and their spouses and children would be required to live on the land. They would relocate their current homes and establish them on parallel streets that all lead to the greenhouse by means of a forking main street. Everyone would be required to work in the greenhouse, which would be settled midway up the field on the west border of the property. The older generation would sow seeds and tend to the watering and fertilization. The children would spend their time picking vegetables and sorting the produce according to quality and size. Picking and sorting, sorting and picking. Sorting would be necessary to insure a democratic distribution of all goods. On the 18th birthday of each child in the second generation, a new, flat-roofed house would be constructed on the parentsí property. Inevitably, as more houses are built, and as the size of the greenhouse is expanded to accommodate more family members, space would run out on the land. In this case, the greenhouse could be removed altogether and replaced by a giant glass structure that would enclose the entire compound. This would create a tropical climate, which would permit all families to plant rooftop gardens. As the family grows, the houses could be expanded upwards, stacked one on top of another by means of stilts so that all rooftop gardens are preserved. High-power grow lights would be installed beneath each new stilted house to nourish the rooftop garden below. More children, more houses, more gardens, more grow lights. This would be a new super-tropical Atlantis that [DIAGRAM HERE].