The Crying of Lot 49

Fallopian is a paranoid Yoyodyne employee whom Oedipa frequently meets at a San Narciso bar called The Scope. Fallopian is writing a book on the conflict between the American government and private postal companies in the 19th century, and he tells Oedipa and Metzger about the secret postal system he is starting through the underground Peter Pinguid Society. However, when he actually receives mail through the Society, it turns out to be a meaningless greeting from a coworker who is in the same bar. Later, Oedipa realizes that this system might be the same as W.A.S.T.E. In fact, although Fallopian is the first person who introduces Oedipa to string of revelations that later gets her obsessed with the Tristero, at the end of the book, Fallopian actually tries to talk Oedipa out of her conspiracy theory by pointing out that Pierce Inverarity is the common thread among everything she has identified with Tristero. In other words, while Oedipa initially sees Fallopian as a paranoid nutjob, the script is flipped and Oedipa looks like the crazy one by the end of the novel. Fallopian’s surname is a reference to the Fallopian tubes in the female reproductive system, although the narrator suggests that the name is actually just a reflection of his Armenian heritage.