CoL49 [5/6]: IA

[Robin Landseadel]

Odd thought, what with the CIA over much in my mind lately:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/5828412/Cheneys-blunder.html

. . . but the fictional IA in CoL49 is devoted to emotional detachment  
and anonymity. Because it is anonymous, one can do just about anything  
in the org.  Because it is devoid of emotional attachment, it seems  
all the more likely that really nasty stuff will happen. The IA member  
in the bar could be an Intelligence Agent. When Oedipa—as desperate as  
she's gonna get—calls:

	. . .  angels were watching. Shortly after midnight she found
	herself in a phone booth, in a desolate, unfamiliar, unlit district
	of San Narciso. She put in a station call to The Greek Way in
	San Francisco, gave the musical voice that answered a
	description of the acned, fuzz-headed Inamorato Anonymous 	
	she'd talked to  . . .

	. . ."Arnold," he said. There was a long stretch of bar noise.

	"It's over," she said, "they've saturated me. From here on I'll only
	close them out. You're free. Released. You can tell me."

	"It's too late," he said. "For me?"

	"For me." Before she could ask what he meant, he'd hung up.
	She had no more coins.
	PC, 146

"IA" echos CIA but it's without the "Central." And the most truly  
weird moments for Oedipa happen in the immediate wake of the scene in  
the gay bar. Trippy, one might even say . . .