Previous
Pierce Inverarity
Metzger is Pierce Inverarity’s lawyer, a handsome former child actor who clumsily seduces Oedipa. In fact, Oedipa receives a letter about Inverarity’s will from Metzger in the book’s opening passage, and this is what initially spurs her to go south to San Narciso. When Oedipa arrives at the Echo Courts motel, Metzger shows up at her room unannounced with several bottles of alcohol. They watch one of his old movies, Cashiered, in which he played a young boy who accompanies his father to World War I and then dies a gruesome death. During the movie, Metzger makes overtly sexual advances at the ambivalent Oedipa and then finally convinces to a play a flirtatious that game he calls “Strip Botticelli.” They eventually have sex, although they are too drunk and tired to stay awake through it all. Afterward, Metzger comments that Inverarity told him that Oedipa “wouldn’t be easy” to sleep with, and this drives Oedipa to tears. For the rest of the book, although Metzger is supposed to be guiding Oedipa through this process of executing Inverarity’s will, in reality he does nothing at all. He and Oedipa spend most of their time having sex, drinking, and otherwise wasting time. When Oedipa returns to San Narciso at in the last chapter, she learns that Metzger has run away with a much younger woman who was previously dating one of the Paranoids. But, owing to the totally transactional and emotionless nature of her connection with Metzger, Oedipa does not mind. Metzger’s name is German for “butcher,” which could be a reference to his cruelty in both his relationship with Oedipa and his job protecting Inverarity’s absurd business ventures. Curiously, Oedipa never even learns Metzger’s first name, which further attests to the emptiness of their affair.
Metzger Quotes in The Crying of Lot 49
The The Crying of Lot 49 quotes below are all either spoken by Metzger or refer to Metzger. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
She made the mistake of looking at herself in the full-length mirror, saw a beach ball with feet, and laughed so violently she fell over, taking a can of hair spray on the sink with her. The can hit the floor, something broke, and with a great outsurge of pressure the stuff commenced atomizing, propelling the can swiftly about the bathroom. […] The can collided with a mirror and bounced away, leaving a silvery, reticulated bloom of glass to hang a second before it all fell jingling into the sink; zoomed over to the enclosed shower, where it crashed into and totally destroyed a panel of frosted glass; thence around the three tile walls, up to the ceiling, past the light, over the two prostrate bodies, amid its own whoosh and the buzzing, distorted uproar from the TV set. She could imagine no end to it; yet presently the can did give up in midflight and fall to the floor, about a foot from Oedipa's nose.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Outside a fugue of guitars had begun, and she counted each electronic voice as it came in, till she reached six or so and recalled only three of the Paranoids played guitars; so others must be plugging in.
Which indeed they were. Her climax and Metzger's, when it came, coincided with every light in the place, including the TV tube, suddenly going out, dead, black. It was a curious experience. The Paranoids had blown a fuse.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3
Quotes
Things then did not delay in turning curious. If one object behind her discovery of what she was to label the Tristero System or often only The Tristero (as if it might be something’s secret title) were to bring to an end her encapsulation in her tower, then that night’s infidelity with Metzger would logically be the starting point for it; logically. That’s what would come to haunt her most, perhaps: the way it fitted, logically, together. As if (as she’d guessed that first minute in San Narciso) there were revelation in progress all around her.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“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.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Crying of Lot 49 LitChart as a printable PDF.
Metzger Quotes in The Crying of Lot 49
The The Crying of Lot 49 quotes below are all either spoken by Metzger or refer to Metzger. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
She made the mistake of looking at herself in the full-length mirror, saw a beach ball with feet, and laughed so violently she fell over, taking a can of hair spray on the sink with her. The can hit the floor, something broke, and with a great outsurge of pressure the stuff commenced atomizing, propelling the can swiftly about the bathroom. […] The can collided with a mirror and bounced away, leaving a silvery, reticulated bloom of glass to hang a second before it all fell jingling into the sink; zoomed over to the enclosed shower, where it crashed into and totally destroyed a panel of frosted glass; thence around the three tile walls, up to the ceiling, past the light, over the two prostrate bodies, amid its own whoosh and the buzzing, distorted uproar from the TV set. She could imagine no end to it; yet presently the can did give up in midflight and fall to the floor, about a foot from Oedipa's nose.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Outside a fugue of guitars had begun, and she counted each electronic voice as it came in, till she reached six or so and recalled only three of the Paranoids played guitars; so others must be plugging in.
Which indeed they were. Her climax and Metzger's, when it came, coincided with every light in the place, including the TV tube, suddenly going out, dead, black. It was a curious experience. The Paranoids had blown a fuse.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3
Quotes
Things then did not delay in turning curious. If one object behind her discovery of what she was to label the Tristero System or often only The Tristero (as if it might be something’s secret title) were to bring to an end her encapsulation in her tower, then that night’s infidelity with Metzger would logically be the starting point for it; logically. That’s what would come to haunt her most, perhaps: the way it fitted, logically, together. As if (as she’d guessed that first minute in San Narciso) there were revelation in progress all around her.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“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.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
