The Crying of Lot 49, Chapter 5 by Thomas Pynchon

 “Maybe I could find out what it is. Maybe I’d be less of a threat for him.”

                When Oedipa enters the house of Dr. Hillarius, she is greeted by the doctor’s frantic assistant who informs her that he has gone completely crazy. He believes that terrorists are after him and has therefore locked himself in his office with a Gewehr 43, a souvenir he kept from the war. In the beginning of Chapter One, it is clear that Oedipa does not want the doctor’s help and does not think the doctor can help her. She also becomes annoyed with him and his late night phone calls. Her willingness to help him and try to save him, makes her a confused and fickled crazy person. 

“I came,” she said, “hoping you could talk me out of a fantasy.” “Cherish it!” cried Hilarius, fiercely.

                Oedipa wishes that her doctor would help relieve her mind of the fantasy in her mind. However, she continues to act on this fantasy and the concept of Repunzel. She has an affair with a man she barely knew, and is now playing detective learning about her ex-boyfriend when all she really needs to do is execute his will. Fantasies help our minds escape from the real world, however when we act upon those fantasies they no longer become trapped in our imagination but rather escape into reality. Dr. Hilarius tells Oedipa to cherish her fantasy to protect them from the Freudians and pharmacists.

“She didn’t know him.”

                When Oedipa and Mucho reunite, Mucho carried himself differently, talked differently. Oedipa did not know who he was. This is in a way ironic, seeing that all this time that she has been spending with Metzger he did not know who she was turning into or what she was doing. She is now concerned since they have been apart for so long, but his changes are all for the better. He appears happier and lighter since she has been away. The time apart has done Mucho some good, while Oedipa seems to only become crazier.

numina- divine power or spirit; a deity, especially one presiding locally or believed to inhabit a particular object. (The Crying of Lot 49, 83)

eschatology- any system of doctrines concerning last, or final, matters, as death, the Judgment, the future state, etc; the branch of theology dealing with such matters. (The Crying of Lot 49, 91)

fetid- having an offensive odor, striking (The Crying of Lot 49, 105)