imipolex-G

[Brian D. McCary]

I discarded the e-mail yesterday, and didn't start thinking about the
question until this morning, so I cannot credit the source, but someone
asked yesterday about the pronunciation of imipolex.

How about M. I. (com)polex?  Or, alternativly, M(ilitary) I(ndustrial)
P(olitical) (comp)lex?  G, of course, would be for Germany, (although 
technically, one would expect D), implying the existance, for instance,
of impolex-A....

Working backwards, Slothrop is sensitized to the existance of impolex-G
at birth, and Gottfried is wrapped in it at death.  If impolex is thought
of as a phemerone, emitted by german society, and Slothrop is just the
snuffling nose of the allies, then...?

Then, clearly, the characters in GR are really the societal bodies 
of the various countries, and the people may be considered as cells 
within the bodies.  What do your liver cells think when you get drunk?
Do they see it as a conspirisy against them?  Is it?  The "They" do not
have to have malicious intent to hurt us, They just have to be arbitrary.

To relate to an earlier issue, Hitler as an individual is irrelevant to
the story of WWII.  He was just one of the spokesman, a "cell" or "organ"
whose existance helped channel wealth and power back to other cells
and organs, which in turn worked to enhance his position in the meta-body
of german society.  (Which is not to say that Hitler, as a concept, was
irrelevant to WWII.  It's just that a Hitler-like entity had to exist,
in order to allow things to get carried as far as they did.)  I am guessing
that Pynchon found that any futher emphasis on an emotional trigger point
like Hitler would distact the reader from his attempt to discuss the 
forces behind the rise of Hitler...

If two of the meta-bodies (They) decide to participate in a mutual 
action (perhaps resembling sex), the cells inside the body will not 
necessarily know why they are doing what they are doing.  The muscles will 
not know why they are restricting bloodflow at a particular point.  Semen
will not "know" why it is being releast from it's holding tank and mixed
in with other fluids.  No need to drive this point home futher.  Gottfried
in the rocket makes perfect sense when viewed as a microscopic action of
macroscopic bodies.

My take on GR is that it is an attempt to trace the interactions of a
couple of characters by discussing the actions of their cells.  Pynchon
treats collections or systems of people as entities unto themselves.  
Imipolex-G is one of the hints he gives to reader to try to think of 
the people-characters as cells of the real characters.

Incidentally, are there any thoughts out there in list land about the
contrasts between the GR conspiricy world, which appears to be one of
arbitrary actions of larger bodies, and the conspiricy world of 
Uberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum", which is one personal delusion and 
over analysis?  I thought Pendulum was about as close as anyone has come
to Pynchon in the last two decades, perhaps even closer than Pynchon
himself came in "Vineland".