The third chapter of The Crying of Lot 49, was divided into two main parts. The first one consisted of Oedipa and her discoveries of many secrets, especially about Pierce. The second part consisted mainly on a very literal description of a play that at the end relates deeply to Oedipa’s findings while executing the will.
As I began to read this chapter I encountered again with the use of rare names that the author of this novel has. A character named Mike Fallopian appears in the story, “introduced himself as Mike Fallopian, and began proselytizing for an organization known...”(34) This character makes part of an organization that seems to have very strong military roots and is very manly due to the fact that it was created to honor a war hero. By naming one of the members, Fallopian, there is great irony there because that word is very feminine simply because it is a female structure. It is probable that the author wants to allude to topics that have brought conflict in society such as homosexuals in the army or the participation of women in wars, just to mention some.
Later on, the “paranoid” topic reappears, this time coming from Fallopian himself, “They accuse us of being paranoids.”- “‘They?’ inquired Metzger, twinkling also.
‘Us?’ asked Oedipa? (35) This segment of the text can be interpreted in many ways, but the most logical one is that the society that is being described in the novel is full of groups of people that act strangely or differently to what society has established, and therefore they are considered “paranoid.” It seems that the excuse used by society to discriminate a certain group consists on focusing on how different they are. In my personal opinion, this is terrible because everyone has the right to express their thoughts and be different, for difference is what makes us human beings equal.
In the play that is described in this chapter, there is an allusion that can be made, when referring to the following, “...Marrying of the only royal female available, his sister Francesca, to Pasquale the Faggian usurper. The only obstacle in the way of this union was is that Francesca is Pasquale’s mother.”(51) The allusion is with King Oedipus, the king that murders his father and marries his mother without knowing that they share his blood. As I could see throughout this chapter, the play is directly related to everything that is going in with Oedipa, and because of this it is important to focus on the significance that incest has in this novel. Also, I realized that Oedipa id the female version of Oedipus, which surely has some kind of meaning in the story.
As I was finished reading the description of the play, I saw that the relation between its content and characters was very similar to some of the affairs that Pierce had been involved in the past and some people he had met as well. The most important connection is that of the “Trysteros.” When I read the word I was very curios and so I decided to look up for its definition, but I could find it. Then almost at the end of the chapter this word reappears this time as the name of the murderer in the play. This word represents a lot more than it appears to mean and the symbolic significance that the author gives it is not to be ignored. The device used by the author of using words with various meanings and reputing them to emphasize on their importance is very new to me, but it is very clever and insightful.
After knowing that, my question is,
What does Trystero mean, and what is its importance?
Vocabulary:
scope: space for movement or activity; opportunity for operation
proselytizing: To induce someone to convert to one's own religious faith
poignant: affecting or moving the emotions
coy: shy; modest.
tegument: A natural outer covering
larceny: the wrongful taking and carrying away of the personal goods of another from his or her possession with intent to convert them to the taker's own use.
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