Parallel journeys in The Crying of Lot 49The Crying of Lot 49 offers two journeys in the text: that of the protagonist Oedipa and the one that the reader is forced to take with him . His brilliant use of detail and wordplay blurs the lines between the two. The main factor in this journey is chaos, referred to here by its more scientific name entropy. Oedipa and the reader become lost in a system of chaos and the task of deciphering the clues within the intricate system. The reader has no choice but to become part of this system through the cleverly employed tactics Pychon uses to engage him. Uncertainty and the complication of the mystery are the devices typically used to bring a character and/or a reader to an understanding of themselves, in this case. In this case it is questionable whether Oedipa or the reader achieves this type of consciousness. Oedipa, through Pynchon's scientific/literary metaphors, has a personal awakening that is not completely resolved with the end of the novel. Both the reader and the protagonist are left wondering what is real and what is fantasy. Pynchon offers clues to solving the puzzle, but the truth in question is not the Trystero, but Oedipa's sanity. Oedipa Mass is forced to involve itself in what appears to be a conspiracy. His work can be compared to that of Maxwell's Demon. "As the Demon sat and divided his molecules into hot and cold, the system was said to lose entropy. But somehow the loss was made up for by the information the Demon gained about which molecules were where" (p.105). Perception is clouded in the novel through the use of alcohol and drugs and the clouding of communication systems. In this case a form of entropy linked to the chaos of a communication system is embodied by the WASTE system in which Oedipa comes across what is fantasy, deciphering what is important and what is useless information? Pynchon's use of detail makes this task difficult and the reader is drawn into his world of symbols and images. Its blend of fiction and history further confuses the reader as the Thurn and Taxis system and that of the Peter Piguid Society are drawn into a world where they rely on Oedipa to decipher clues. Oedipa and the reader are dragged into a constant fear of paranoia.