GRGR1: Discussion opener for section 1

[ckaratnytsky at nypl.org]

     Question 2:  What does the *dream* signify?  What does the *waking up* 
     signify?
     
     Here's what I think:
     
     Pirate, expert dreamer of dreams, fearless doer of dangerous deeds, 
     exclusive receiver of special messages, dexterous kicker of beds, 
     proficient grower and expert cooker of bananas (get the idea?), is being 
     established here as a Hero, particularly through his affinity with and 
     mastery of the physical, the sensory, (dare I say?) "the real" world.  
     This is, at least, *part* of what the "*dream*" and the "*waking up*" 
     signify.  Pirate is in tune and in touch with the experiential:  It's 
     the gradual realization that it's "*already*" light in the room which 
     wakes him.  Also--this fact is supplied by the anonymous, 
     authoritative Great and Powerful Oz, the narrator, so we are assured 
     of its veracity.  In the same paragraph, it's the *feel* of "the cold 
     morning air flowing now across his nipples" that brings him fully out 
     of the dream.  And, further on, throughout the rest of this section, 
     we are reminded of his physical responses and reactions:
     
     "His skull feels made of metal."
     
     "He feels about to shit."
     
     His "sweat lies on his skin almost cold as ice."
     
     Pirate, master of his universe, is contrasted here with drunken, 
     flopping Teddy, who bloats (fat, anyone?) from the gallery above into 
     Pirate's deftly kicked-started, rolling bed, and prefigures the 
     arrival of our boy Tyrone Slothrop.
     
     Now, I'm quite sure that this master of my physical domain stuff (i.e., 
     it's real because I experience it to be real) has much to do with all 
     of the Pavlov that comes up later (and, which, by the way, is 
     anticipated in a seemingly throwaway remark about the ministrations of 
     Pirate's hung-over mates, who look "for the hair of the dog that not 
     with out provocation and much prior conditioning bit them last 
     night"), but this gets ahead of the game and I am uneducated about 
     Pavlov anyway, so someone else will have to supply that information.
     
     Also, the name "Pirate" reminds me of the old Milt Caniff "Terry and the 
     Pirates" comic, which was still in syndication when I was a kid in the 
     60's, but I'm not sure how it might relate, except for the pilot hero, 
     Pat Ryan.  (In my mind's eye, I have always pictured Prentice looking 
     like this.)
     
     Question 6:  What exactly are all those bananas about?
     
     Well, sometimes a banana is just a banana, Dr. Freud.  As before, I 
     think the bananas can be read as evidence of Pirate's mastery of the 
     material world--though I'm not above mulling over their phallic 
     connotations.     
     
     The passage cited by Stephan Brown from The Wake:  "Holy bug, how my 
     highness would jump to make you halve a bannan.." would make Osbie 
     Feel's song a neat little pun:  "Time to gather your arse up off the 
     floor, (have a bana-na)..."  Or, have I merely restated the obvious, 
     Stephan?  Is that what you were saying?

     back to writing about V.,
     
     Chris