The Crying of Lot 49 Chapters 3 and 4

Oedipa ends up sleeping with Metzger near the beginning of this chapter. She starts to thin of herself as Repunzal and that someone is going to come ask her to just let her hair down. She feels that if she can figure out the Tristero System she can get out of her tower and end captivity. She thinks that infedelity with Metzger will be the starting point of this. The rest of Chapter 3 discusses how Oedipa and Metzger go to a bar called the Scope. While there they meet a man named Mike Fallopian who is a member of the Peter Pinguin Society which is a very right wing society. Oedipa goes to the bathroom and sees a strange marking on the wall that says underneath "interested in fun, contact Kirby waste only. She has no idea what this means but writes it down and dismesses it for the time being. She goes to the table and hears the men discussing the postal service and talk about Fallopian's book. After this they travel to Lake Inverarity, one of Pierce's estates. They meet Manny di Presso who is trying to sue Inveraritys estate for one of his clients. His client gave Iverarity bones to make into a special charcoal . The Paranoids have come on this trip also and tell Oedipa that this sounds a lot like The Courier's Tragedy, a revenge drama. Oedipa and Metzger go to the play, after the show Oedipa goes backstage to speak with a man named Dribblette about the bones but they end up discussing the play instead of the bones.

Chapter 4

Oedipa reads the will again and notices it mention Yoyodyne, she goes to the plant and meets Clayton Chiclitz, and he gives her a tour. She comes upon an office and sees the Tristero symbol that she saw in the bathroom. The man in the office os Stanley Kotecks. He begins to tell her about a machine that defies The Second Law of Thermodynamics which says you cannot have perpetual motion. He says only sensitives can make the machine run. So Oedipa suspects she is a sensitive and goes to Berkeley to be tested. On her way to Berkeley she stops at Vesperhaven and old person home. She meats a man Mr. Toth. He shows her a ring he is in possession of and it has the post horn symbol she saw in the bathroom on it. She talks to Fallopian about this and he can see a connection between the major mail companys and the Indians. Oedipa feels like she is coming on to a mass conspiracy.