GRGR[4]

[kellner at ccwf.cc.utexas.edu]

To continue the dialogue:
It strikes me as significant that the section opens from the POV of a dog,
snifting Pointsman, ergo looking at the Behaviorist from the POV of its
victim. It is also significant that Pointsman immediately steps into a
toiltet boil, which he then drags around with him the rest of the (highly
comic) scene, caught in the muck of excrement that... what? the
behaviorist could explore, is trapped in, or?
Pointsman/behaviorism is a major theme here and will be for the rest of
the book. By chance I was re-reading a book I first read in graduate
school Floyd W. Matson, THE BROKEN IMAGE, Man, Science, and Society
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday 1966 [1964]). The Anchor BOoks edition was
readily available and its possible that TRP got part of his take on
behaviorism from this book that has some excellent chapters on behaviorism
in politics relevant to GR and some chapters on the New Physics, the
Quantam Revolution, the Microphysics of Life, etc. that might well have
interested TRP (the book is also the first, as far as I know, to introduce
the concept of a "postmodern science" which breaks with mechanistic
science; I would indeed be interested if there were earlier references to
"postmodern science" as I am doing a study of this topic...
A question: what was F.R.S.C. stand for, initials that follow the
Introduction of the name of Mr. Edward W.A. Pointman, and who has some
thoughts on his name initials...
We then are introduced to Pointsman from Jessica's POV who sees him as "a
mediaeval knight" and wonders: "What creature is he possibly here tonight
to fight for his king?" and the rest of the book provides the answer.
Jessica then wonders what she is doing out with Roger and these manaics
and wishes she was home "cuddling someplace with Beaver this very minute,
watching him light up his Pipe." And to respond to Andrew's query, I
assume the Pipe is capitalized as a semiotic marker to signify Bourgeois
Normality, or perhaps its a Freudian signifier of the safe bourgeoise
phallus. Thus, it probably is and is not a pipe...
I'll write more on this later, but I think all of the characters from the
Scientific Establishment introduced here and elsewhere represent in their
person's TRP's perceptions of embodiments of various scientific positions
(behaviorism, statistical regularities, Freudianism, parapsychology,
u.s.w.)...

Douglas Kellner, Dept of Philosophy, Univ of Texas, Austin, TX 78712
kellner at ccwf.cc.utexas.edu  fax: 512 471-4806
Web sites: Postmodern theory= http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~kellner/pm/pm.html
Critical theory= http://www.uta.edu/english/dab/illuminations/