the form of the mail service. In the sense of the passage on page 100, the idea of being an outcast from the normality of society and being content with this banishment, for the most part, seems to be the prevalent theme.
             The selection on page 100 begins by saying "Oedipa played the voyeur and listener." This quote comes at a point in the novel in which Oedpia is wandering the streets of San Francisco, searching for clues about WASTE and the Trystero; this context of searching leads nicely into the passage leading off with her playing the role of a voyeur. The significance of this context lies in the fact that Oedipa is not playing the voyeur to the cream of the crop. She is instead eavesdropping on those outcasts who search the darkness alone, as she does. The word voyeur itself has connotations along the lines of intimacy. This intimate association between Oedipa and the people she watches serves to connect her to the movement of WASTE, which exists so that those in the underground can communicate. Each of the characters revealed is in some way connected not only with WASTE, but also with searching and Oedipa.
             The first character encountered in this passage by Oedipa is "a facially-deformed welder, who cherished his ugliness." This "welder" could be one of two things; it could be a person, or a machine. The term welder not only refers to the profession of welding, but also alludes to a machine that performs the same task. The fact that this welder is facially deformed combined with this duality of the word welder itself leads to a portrait of an identity that has been distorted somewhat from normality. Normality for many is defined as beauty, and the welder lacks this beauty. Through cherishing this fact, the welder is making a statement against the normality of beauty. Evidence of this idea of distorted identity is further revealed by what is not on the page. No further description i...