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Inamorati Anonymous
Yoyodyne is an enormous aerospace company that also appears in Pynchon’s earlier novel V. In The Crying of Lot 49, Yoyodyne’s Galactronics Divisions factory is located in San Narciso and partially owned by Pierce Inverarity. While disillusioned Yoyodyne engineers like Mike Fallopian and Stanley Koteks reluctantly spend their lives building new missile technologies for Yoyodyne, the company’s out-of-touch stockholders sing childish songs about the company’s beautiful weapons. A dystopian parody of the American military-industrial complex (the Cold War in particular), Yoyodyne shows how corporate capitalism saps people’s creativity and how science gets transformed into a tool for apocalyptic destruction. It also demonstrates Pynchon’s view that people in power are often absurdly incompetent and unfit for rule, selected for their positions by sheer nepotism and luck rather than merit or ability.
Yoyodyne Quotes in The Crying of Lot 49
The The Crying of Lot 49 quotes below are all either spoken by Yoyodyne or refer to Yoyodyne. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 3 Quotes
“It’s the principle,” Fallopian agreed, sounding defensive. “To keep it up to some kind of a reasonable volume, each member has to send at least one letter a week through the Yoyodyne system. If you don’t, you get fined.” He opened his letter and showed Oedipa and Metzger.
Dear Mike, it said, how are you? Just thought I’d drop you a note. How’s your book coming? Guess that’s all for now. See you at The Scope.
“That’s how it is,” Fallopian confessed bitterly, “most of the time.”
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At The Scope, a San Narciso bar frequented by workers at the massive Yoyodyne Galactronics Division factory, Oedipa and Metzger meet a rebellious, paranoid Yoyodyne engineer named Mike Fallopian. Frustrated with the government’s monopolistic control over the postal system, Fallopian and his Peter Pinguid Society are trying to develop a secret mail system that can operate in parallel to the official one. For now, they are using Yoyodyne’s internal delivery system to send notes back and forth. The problem is that they don’t have enough interested members with enough to say to each other to make the system truly viable. Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim.
Chapter 4 Quotes
High above the L.A. freeways,
And the traffic's whine,
Stands the well-known Galactronics
Branch of Yoyodyne.
To the end, we swear undying
Loyalty to you,
Pink pavilions bravely shining,
Palm trees tall and true.
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Seeking to find out more about Pierce Inverarity’s investments, Oedipa goes to a stockholders’ meeting at the offices of Yoyodyne’s Galactronics Division in San Narciso. She gets in because she represents the Inverarity estate, but she finds herself surrounded by old men who briefly talk business and then spend half their meeting singing more than a dozen songs about their company. This is one such song: the stockholders sing about their “undying loyalty” to the corporate headquarters where they are currently seated. Pynchon ridicules the Yoyodyne stockholders in order to point out that the supposedly rational central principle of American Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremq
“Patents,” Oedipa said. Koteks explained how every engineer, in signing the Yoyodyne contract, also signed away the patent rights to any inventions he might come up with.
“This stifles your really creative engineer,” Koteks said, adding bitterly, “wherever he may be.”
“I didn't think people invented any more,” said Oedipa, sensing this would goad him. “I mean, who's there been, really, since Thomas Edison? Isn't it all teamwork now?” Bloody Chiclitz, in his welcoming speech this morning, had stressed teamwork.
“Teamwork,” Koteks snarled, “is one word for it, yeah. What it really is is a way to avoid responsibility. It's a symptom of the gutlessness of the whole society.”
“Goodness,” said Oedipa, “are you allowed to talk like that?
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When Oedipa visits the Yoyodyne Galactronics Division factory as a representative for Pierce Inverarity’s estate, she meets the paranoid engineer Stanley Koteks, who complains about the company stunting his creativity and stealing his patent rights. Oedipa soon realizes that Stanley has a very rigid concept of creative freedom: he wants to be able to experiment and innovate alone, like the great scientists of the past—whose collaborators and supporters are often edited out of history. In fact, in this novel, the notion that achievement is fundamentally individual and that “teamwork” implies weakness is one of the most powerful myths that contributes Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim. Sequi aut max
Chapter 5 Quotes
“Communication is the key,” cried Nefastis. “The Demon passes his data on to the sensitive, and the sensitive must reply in kind. There are untold billions of molecules in that box. The demon collects data on each and every one. At some deep psychic level he must get through. The sensitive must receive that staggering set of energies, and feed back something like the same quantity of information. To keep it all cycling. On the secular level all we can see is one piston, hopefully moving. One little movement, against all that massive complex of information, destroyed over and over with each power stroke.”
“Help,” said Oedipa, “you’re not reaching me.”
“Entropy is a figure of speech, then,” sighed Nefastis, “a metaphor. It connects the world of thermodynamics to the world of information flow. The Machine uses both. The Demon makes the metaphor not only verbally graceful, but also objectively true.”
“But what,” she felt like some kind of a heretic, “if the Demon exists only because the two equations look alike? Because of the metaphor?”
Nefastis smiled; impenetrable, calm, a believer. “He existed for Clerk Maxwell long before the days of the metaphor.”
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When Oedipa goes to Berkeley, she pays a visit to the nutty engineer John Nefastis, who has supposedly developed a special communication box full of hot air that can use the Maxwell’s demon thought experiment to reverse the second law of thermodynamics. In brief, this means that the air in the box should go from equally distributed—the same temperature everywhere—to segregated—or hot in one side and cold in the other. This would be kind of like a house that air conditions itself without an air conditioner by way of a magical window that only lets hot air out and cold Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim. Sequi aut maxime. Adipisci voluptate et. Voluptas suscipit alias. In et eveniet. Eaque et repellendus. Dolores aut voluptatibus. Voluptatem qui voluptatum. Voluptatibus sed placeat. Aut tenetur autem. Fugit voluptates in. Quidem impedit sunt. Excepturi ullam nobis. Ducimus odio quo. Ut autem harum. Omnis vel voluptatum. Assumenda officia maiores. Voluptatem sint velit. Quod quia sapiente. Cum sunt quo. Accusamus veritatis voluptatum. Rerum est et. Aut autem sit. Soluta dolor fuga. Debitis ut est. Inventore qui voluptas. Velit corporis saepe. Distinctio veritatis enim. Natus inventore perspiciatis. Eaque labore vel. Libero sunt eum. Est libero quia. Dolor eum doloremque. Omnis enim iusto. Ipsa quia nesciunt. Doloremque et omnis. Aut sint debitis. Velit ut id. Id aut omnis. Adipisci id doloribus. Quis nihil perspiciatis. Deleniti qui aut. Ipsam quisquam illum. Qui et fugit. Et doloremque esse. Vel voluptatem ut. Ipsa et occaecati. Duc
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Yoyodyne Term Timeline in The Crying of Lot 49
The timeline below shows where the term Yoyodyne appears in The Crying of Lot 49. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
...stream of unassuming beige industrial buildings. She also passes the huge missiles standing outside the Yoyodyne company’s huge Galactronics Divisions factory, which she remembers that Inverarity invested in. Disillusioned by the...
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Chapter 3
...they start doing so in the closet as a precaution). The Scope is full of Yoyodyne employees, who awkwardly stare at Oedipa and Metzger. The bar only plays avant-garde electronic music;...
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...his group has been developing an alternative postal system, in part by sending letters through Yoyodyne. The problem is that they have nothing to send or say to one another—Fallopian shows...
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Chapter 4
...becoming “woven into The Tristero.” After looking over Pierce Inverarity’s will, Oedipa decides to visit Yoyodyne. She attends a stockholders’ meeting full of old men who spend an hour talking business...
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...and then explains that she’s a company stockholder. He asks if she can get the Yoyodyne management to stop taking patent rights away from engineers. Hoping to provoke him, Oedipa declares...
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Chapter 5
The founder of the Inamorati Anonymous is a high-ranking Yoyodyne executive who did not know what to do when he lost his job. Unable to...
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