How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Hanging in the air over her bed she now beheld the well-known portrait of Uncle that appears in front of all our post offices, his eyes gleaming unhealthily, his sunken yellow cheeks most violently rouged, his finger pointing between her eyes. I want you. She had never asked Dr. Hilarius why, being afraid of all he might answer. (1.30)
What do you make of the fact that Oedipa has hallucinations related to post offices before she even gets the first hint of the Tristero conspiracy?
Quote #2
He claimed to have once cured a case of hysterical blindness with his number 37, the "Fu-Manchu" (many of the faces having like German symphonies both a number and nickname), which involved slanting the eyes up with the index fingers, enlarging the nostrils with the middle fingers, pulling the mouth wide with the pinkies and protruding the tongue. On Hilarius it was truly alarming. (1.37)
Is Hilarius the craziest character in the book? How is Pynchon satirizing psychoanalysis here?
Quote #3
Oedipa nodded. She couldn't stop watching his eyes. They were a bright black, surrounded by an incredible network of lines, like a laboratory maze for studying intelligence in tears. They seemed to know what she wanted, even if she didn't. (3.150)
Does Oedipa's fascination with Driblette's eyes seem natural, or does reality seem to be morphing under her gaze? Does this happen more and more as the book goes on?