Thomas Pynchon, from The Crying of Lot 49
1. What is the nature of Oedipa’s "Trystero problem"? Although Oedipa gathers more and more information about the Trystero and its sign, the muted post horn, it is unclear whether or not she is any closer to solving the mystery of the Trystero’s existence. What does this indicate about the relationship between information and meaning, or between signs and sense? While the jump-rope song about the "Tristoe" and the "Turning taxi from across the sea" sung by the children in Golden Gate Park seems to Oedipa to be related to the Trystero and its European rival, Thurn and Taxis, the children had "never heard it that way." What could be the reason for this? Eventually, Oedipa begins to suspect that the clues she’s encountering might be "only some kind of compensation. To make up for her having lost the direct, epileptic Word, the cry that might abolish the night." What is "the direct, epileptic Word," and how is its loss connected to the problem of "meaning"?
2. At one point in this chapter, Oedipa wonders "where was the Oedipa who’d driven so bravely up here from San Narciso? That optimistic baby had come on so like the private eye in any long-ago radio drama, believing all you needed was grit, resourcefulness, exemption from hidebound cops’ rules, to solve any great mystery." In what ways does Oedipa’s investigation resemble that of the popular-culture modern hero, the hard-boiled detective, and how is it different? What does Oedipa Maas’ unusual name suggest, and what does it tell you about the nature of her quest?
3. Oedipa’s meeting with the member of Inamorati Anonymous is one in a long series of encounters with different "isolates," the alienated and withdrawn who seem nonetheless somehow connected through the post horn. Does this connection constitute a form of community? How could it be related to more-familiar forms of community in contemporary America?