GRGR(5) - the Kenosha Kid

[Chris Stolz]

What an interesting thread-- finally we get technical analysis of jazz to
base Pynchon specualtions on.  I have a question for those who want to play
with the Kenosha Kid section more:  to what end does Pynchon do this
variation on a theme?  In jazz you work your way through progressively more
elaborate improvisations around the theme (culminating in the kind of thing
Coltrane does with his incredible live version of "Body and Soul" which
totally leaves the theme behind) and when you return to the beginning at the
end the simplicity of the theme has mental echoes-- you are where you
started and things are the same, only different (alter idem). 

        The thing about the Kenosha Kid routine is that a jazz improv
section of a tune isn't really like this literary bit, because you generally
get a series of improvisational solos on different instruments which *don't*
restate the theme each time, the theme appearing only at the beginning and
end.  Pynchon's narrator re-states his theme at the end of each paragraph.
If we want a performing arts analogy, I would compare it more with
cannabinoid slapstick, early Richard Pryor maybe-- you can hear the drumroll
at the end of each variation and the theme being kicked around a circle of
stoned people-- if that makes any sense...I wonder if this section is
playing with the idea of "truth," which for Slothrop is a set of ideas which
have no clear (i.e. definitively verifiable) material-world counterpart.
Slothrop remains fixated on his phrase and its circularity may suggest
something about his ability to make sense of the world (everything returns
to its beginnign in his mind).   
chris stolz

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