The Crying of Lot 49: Chapter 3

I have found that as I continue to read the chapters become more confusing with new unimportant characters and situations. For example in the third chapter we meed a man called Mike Fallopian, he is a right winger who is anti-monopoly and refuses to use the US mail. He appears for a very short time in this chapter and seems very irrellevant and unimportant. He may symbolize the era in which this book is set and he introduces us to the Peter Pinguid Society, which is a very patriotic society. What I don't understand is what the importance of the society is in association with the plot. I see the novel "The Crying of Lot 49" as an abstract detective/mystery novel and a historical and patriotic group doesn't seem to fit with the setting.

Alot of the elements of the novel are random facts or people without much significance but that add some body to the complicated novel. For example as the chapter continues Oedipa, Metzeger and The Paranoids go to lake Inverarity and they meet another lawyer called di Presso who is sueing Inverarity. He goes into a story about a massacre during World War Two and the transport of bones from Italy to the United States which are supposedly being used for cigarrettes. I think that this story is very true but the use of the bones is disgusting and rediculous. Though the character is related to the story he is another unimportant one. Also I didn't understand why he kept on running away from his clients, the fact that he did and marooned the group on an island. The way they signaled for help (using their cigarrettes) and the entire situation did add comedy to the chapter.

The description of the play that Oedipa and Metzeger went to was disturbing and rather coincidental. The reason for their attendence was the fact that the Paranoids had mentioned that the story of the massacre in Italy reminded them of the play "The Courier's Tragedy". The play was bloody and tragic and was described in such detail that I'm guessing it has a big significance in the continuing chapters. Oedipa is very intrigued and inquisitive about the play even going as far as searching for the director. I think that this story has a realistic element but overall I find the plot very far-fetched because of the outrageous things that are mentioned like bone filters. I'm interested in seeing what the significance of the play and especially of Tristero in the continuing chapters.