Discussion opener for GRGR(4)

[David Casseres]

>20) "How Pointsman lusts aftre them, pretty children" (50.19) Why is
>    the image used "lust"? Why link his scientific fantasies to sex?

[Jean replies]     
> There is something disturbingly sexual in the images of the animals. 
> Maybe it's the detailed description of stimuli, to which the dogs 
> respond by producing fluids.  Rather biologically like sexual stimuli, 
> eh?  Plus, the S&M images of bondage.

In Pynchon, all exploitation is sexual/instinctual, a reflex of Them that 
is as automatic/Pavlovian as the dog's drooling or Slothrop's hardon.  
Think of the colonialism-as-rape theme in V. and elsewhere.  And for 
Pointsman, science is inextricably linked to exploitation of experimental 
subjects, so it knots into the iron mechanisms of war and industry.

Pointsman is horribly repressed.  He can barely respond when Maude takes 
him into the closet at the Christmas party and blows him.  No wonder his 
sexuality slops over into his science, and perhaps he's a microcosm of 
Them in this regard.

Cheers,
David