The Crying of Lot 49 Theme of Versions of Reality

At the heart of Oedipa Maas's crazy predicament is her inability to tell the difference between her own mind and the world around her. Though she's aware that she (at least partially) creates her own reality, she is unable to tell how much of her world is real and how much is part of her fevered imagination. At the end of The Crying of Lot 49, she's left with a number of different versions of reality to choose from… but she doesn't know how to make the choice.

1. What is Oedipa's relationship to "plot" in the novel? What about the reader's? How does plot function differently in Lot 49 than it does in most novels?
2. How does Oedipa attempt to explain complexity in the novel? How does she link the growth of digital machines to a religious sensibility?
3. To what extent does Oedipa create the world in which she lives? To what extent does she recognize her role in creating her own reality? Why does this make her feel claustrophobic?
4. What causes Oedipa to sense meaning in the novel? Is she able to distinguish between genuine meaning and only the appearance of it?

At the beginning of the novel, Oedipa Maas equates complexity with meaning and significance. But as the novel moves on, she is forced to look for meaning in simplicity.

Throughout the novel, Oedipa's real quest is to escape from her own mind into a world that she knows is real.