Of Bananas, etc.: GRGR

[LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU]

Curt Gardner asserts:
"Perhaps quite obvious, but as I re-read the first section, I noted the
wonderful symmetry to the final page of the book.  After seeing the
rocket launch, Pirate is thinking, "What if it should hit exactly--ahh,
no--for a split second you'd have to feel the very point, with terrible
mass above, strike the top of the skull...."  But rather than dwell on
the possibilities, "Pirate hunches his shoulders, bearing his bananas
down the corkscrew ladder."  The bananas, to me, are rich, pungent
affirmations of life."


Quite right (especially when Death is being told to "fuck off").  Some have
seen the corkscrew ladder as a(n anachronistic) reference to the ladder-
structure of the DNA molecule.  It certainly would fit.


I missed a point about "incoming mail" on a previous post:
Besides being common slang, the rocket that Pirate observes is *literally*
incoming mail, since it contains the message that will send him after Katje.

This is a point that took me three readings to understand!

Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)