CoL49 group reading ch 3: 33, 34

[Michael Bailey]

“Report all obscene mail to your potsmaster”
This postmark raises questions.

As she thinks later (I seem to recall) Pierce was rich enough to commission
all kinds of fuckery.

So if Wendell put the letter in their mailbox for the US post to pick up -
a Pierce myrmidon could easily have intercepted it.

Or it could just be a misprint.

Metzger interprets it literally - and I think the idea of a potsmaster is
somewhat pleasing, with which I think she shows concurrence by tossing a
brassiere at him instead of something harder.

- the question of Pierce hovers over the whole story - did he set all this
stuff up? If so, why? Is it having the desired effect, or are her mental
gyrations different than what he might have wanted?

Why did she cry when Metzger told her Pierce said she wouldn’t be easy?

Who is this Metzger anyway? He says he wasn’t close to PI, just drew up the
will. But if Pierce was confiding about Oedipa’s “easiness” (which is tough
to construe as anything other than sexual) then he must’ve expected their
tryst; indeed, he may have directed it. Purchased it, to put it baldly.
Although it’s also tough to imagine Metzger raising objections or his
price, isn’t it?

Why is she staying at a cheap motel? She didn’t check in with Pierce’s
people and no credit card was mentioned as coming with the notification,
was it? So she would’ve at least checked in with her own money - but since
Metzger was motivated (& presumably paid) enough to track her down,
Pierce’s funds would probably come into play. What’s an executrix role
without a few perks?

That such a room would have a walk-in closet would seem unlikely, but the
gyrations with the dresser prove that description was exaggerated.

Their restlessness when the room “became impossible” leads them out of the
Paranoids’ purview in search of strong drink, to a bar called “The Scope.”

The nose-picking nerds in The Scope resent them when they walk in, but the
bartender explains the electronic music setup.

Metzger asks questions as if unfamiliar, but if he’s doing all this at
Pierce’s behest, he’s actually brought her there on purpose, and would know
already.
- unless Pierce just told him to bring her there & he’d never been before

Then Mike Fallopian, a “frail young man in a Sta-Prest suit” invites
himself to join their party, with a pitch for the Peter Pinguid Society.