Obfuscating Oedipa: Lot 49, Paranoia, and Conspiracy

Abstract

In a literary context, paranoia as a theme is as pervasive to the storyline of Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 (hereafter, Lot 49) as it is to American history. The obfuscation that comprises the protagonist Oedipa Maas’s investigation into the possible existence of a secret postal group reflects not only the sentiments of a generation fraught with conspiracy theories and mass paranoia, but also, as the social sciences point out, how paranoia is a very real aspect of the way we approach rationality.