Oedipa: Focused On the Interesting Not the Important

    One peculiarity about The Crying of Lot 49 (among the many oddities, of course) is that ostensibly Oedipa started out with the intention of executing Pierce's will, but the majority of the plot seems primarily driven by her many tangents. After visiting Yoyodyne and talking to an employee, she takes more notice in the perpetual motion device he references than the value of the company. So far she seems to have only effectively dealt with his stamps, but she has already spent a lot of time and effort. The biggest question I have is why she keeps following these rabbit holes and searching for the connection between the very weak connections she sees if she has other things she should be doing. The most ridiculous example I found is when she decides to see a play simply because it is said to be similar to the fate of the soldiers whose bones were collected for charcoal filters.