The Crying of Lot 49

In chapter five, Oedipa develops new conspiracy theories as she speaks to people who are actually involved with the Trystero. She first meets John Nefastits to see if she is a "sensitive" or can operate a machine that defies the Law of Thermodynamics, only to realize that she is not special at all. She then wallows while drinking in a bar until she sees a man with a tattoo of the muted horn who tells her about the Inamorati Anonymous (IA), a satirical version of AA. The next day, Oedipa meets a man who has a tattoo on his arm of the muted horn and is about to die. He asks Oedipa to mail a strange letter, with a postage stamp that has the muted horn on it as well. Intrigued, she decides to help, and waits for the mailman to pick up the letter along with all the other mail with the strange post markings, which only leads her back to John Nefastis. She goes back home, with thoughts of the Trystero and the symbol in mind, and decides she should talk to her shrink. When she does to find Dr. Hilarius, she finds that he has gone crazy himself, as a consequence of surrounding himself with crazy people. He reveals how he used to be a Nazi and accidentally kidnaps her. When she escapes, she is reunited with Mucho only to find that he is hooked on LSD, and has decided to realize his dreams and have a personality, which is why she leaves him.
This chapter was much more interesting than the others, and was written in a way that was not nearly half as jumbled as the rest of the book. Not only that, but the book starts to get into things that are much more interesting, like the whole government conspiracy idea about the mail being rigged, and everyone in on it from your local business workers, to the children who play hopscotch.
It is funny how Oedipa starts to really develop in this chapter, because I feel that, for a main character, she does not have an established personality. I don't really like her because she does not have a real personality, is weak-minded, and lacks self respect. But, in this chapter I started to not be annoyed by her. I still don't really like her, but understand her more. She is all the things that I hate about her, but she is like that because she is so much more lonely than she wants to be. It is hard for her to believe in people, and wound up abandoned because they did not believe in her in return. Then you see why she likes mysteries and being confused. After walking home from the bar, she goes on a walk and realizes how she never solves the things that confuse her because she does not want to get any closer to the truth. But she has this underlying feeling that she needs to know the truth sooner or later.
I actually really like the whole concept behind the IA. I think that it was a funny allusion to use, but it is also sad because I know that there are much sadder and more unrealistic support groups. When the story behind the IA is expained, it actually makes sense because so many people make mistakes because of love and getting rid of it altogether actually makes sense. The basic story behind the IA is that a man came home ready to committ suicide because he could not find a new job, but overhears his wife sleeping with the man who got him fired, and decides to live and help people avoid falling in love. This only further proves the theme in this book that you cannot trust other people.

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