The Crying of Lot 49

by

Thomas Pynchon

The Founder of Inamorati Anonymous Character Analysis

According to the Inamorati Anonymous member whom Oedipa meets in The Greek Way, the group was founded by a laid-off Yoyodyne executive who was replaced with a machine and then could not find any reason to live without his corporate job. The founder nearly committed suicide but found his wife sleeping with the boss who laid him off and decided to instead dedicate himself to helping people avoid falling in love. A parody of corporate capitalism’s profit-seeking tendencies, the founder’s story suggests that American individualism leads people to sacrifice the most important, human parts of themselves—the identities and relationships that make life worth living—for the sake of efficiency and production.
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The Founder of Inamorati Anonymous Character Timeline in The Crying of Lot 49

The timeline below shows where the character The Founder of Inamorati Anonymous appears in The Crying of Lot 49. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
American Modernity and Counterculture Theme Icon
Media, Communication, and Human Relationships Theme Icon
The founder of the Inamorati Anonymous is a high-ranking Yoyodyne executive who did not know what to... (full context)
Conspiracy, Interpretation, and Meaning Theme Icon
American Modernity and Counterculture Theme Icon
Media, Communication, and Human Relationships Theme Icon
Right before lighting himself on fire, the Inamorati Anonymous founder heard his wife entering the house with the man who fired him and having sex... (full context)