Editing The Crying of Lot 49 (section)

==Plot==
In the mid-1960s, Oedipa Maas lives a fairly comfortable life in a northern Californian village, despite her lackluster marriage with Mucho Maas, a rudderless [[radio jockey]] and [[ephebophile]], and her sessions with Dr. Hilarius, an unhinged German [[psychotherapist]] who tries to medicate his patients with [[LSD]]. One day, Oedipa learns of the death of an ex-lover, Pierce Inverarity, an incredibly wealthy and powerful real-estate mogul from the Los Angeles area, who has nominated her as the [[executor]] of his estate. Oedipa goes to meet Inverarity's lawyer, a former [[child actor]] named Metzger, and they begin an affair, which fascinates a local teenage rock band, the Paranoids, who begin following the pair [[voyeuristic]]ally. At a bar, Oedipa notices the graffiti symbol of a [[Mute (music)|muted]] [[post horn]] with the label "W.A.S.T.E." and she chats with Mike Fallopian, a [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] historian and critic of the postal system, who claims to use a secret postal service.

[[Image:MutedPosthorn.png|right|thumb|The novel's ubiquitous muted [[post horn]] symbol]]

It emerges that Inverarity had [[American Mafia|Mafia connections]], illicitly attempting to sell the bones of forgotten U.S. [[World War II]] soldiers for use as [[charcoal]] to a cigarette company. One of the Paranoids' friends mentions that this strongly reminds her of a [[Jacobean era|Jacobean]] [[revenge play]] she recently saw called ''The Courier's Tragedy''. Intrigued by the coincidence, Oedipa and Metzger attend a performance of the play, which briefly mentions the name "Tristero". After the show, Oedipa approaches the play's director and star, Randolph Driblette, who deflects her questions about the mention of the unusual name. After seeing a man scribbling the post horn symbol, Oedipa reconnects with Mike Fallopian, who tells her he suspects a conspiracy. This is supported when [[watermarks]] of the muted horn symbol are discovered hidden on Inverarity's private stamp collection. The symbol appears to be a muted variant of the [[coat of arms]] of [[Thurn-und-Taxis-Post|Thurn and Taxis]], an 18th-century European postal monopoly that suppressed all opposition, including Trystero (or Tristero), a competing postal service that was defeated but possibly driven underground. Based on the symbolism of the mute, Oedipa thinks that Trystero exists as a countercultural [[secret society]] with unknown goals.

She researches an older censored edition of ''The Courier's Tragedy'', which confirms that Driblette indeed made a conscious choice to insert the "Tristero" line. She seeks answers through a machine claimed to have psychic abilities but the experience is awkward and unsuccessful. As she feverishly wanders the [[Bay Area]], the muted post horn symbol appears in many random places. Finally, a nameless man at a [[gay bar]] tells her that the symbol simply represents an anonymous [[support group]] for people with [[broken heart]]s. Oedipa witnesses people referring to and using mailboxes disguised as regular waste bins marked with "W.A.S.T.E." (later suggested to be an [[acronym]] for "We Await Silent Tristero's Empire"). Even so, Oedipa sinks into [[paranoia]], wondering if Trystero exists or if she is merely overthinking a series of false connections.

Fearing for her sanity, Oedipa makes an impromptu visit to Dr. Hilarius, only to find him having lost his own mind, firing a gun randomly and raving madly about his days as a Nazi [[medical intern]] at [[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]]. She helps the police subdue him, only to return home to find that her husband Mucho has lost his mind in his own way, having become addicted to LSD. Oedipa consults an English professor about ''The Courier's Tragedy'', learns that Randolph Driblette has mysteriously committed suicide, and is left pondering whether Trystero is simply a prolonged hallucination, a historical plot, or an elaborate practical joke that Inverarity arranged for her before his death. Oedipa goes to an auction of Inverarity's possessions and waits on the bidding of lot 49, which contains the stamp collection with the muted horn symbol. Having learned that a particular bidder is interested in the stamps, she hopes to discover if this person will be a representative of the Trystero secret society.