GRGR (8)

[Mike Weaver]

Joe Varo wrote in GRGR(8) Discussion Opener 13/1/97

>We then go into, what will be called (on page 118), the Disgusting
>English Candy Drill.  At first I really couldn't determine any
>great significance in this scene; it just struck me as an instance
>of comic relief.  But when the DECD is over and Tyrone and Darlene
>are in the sack, the narrator briefly takes us back to the DECD to
>inform us that "...the one candy he did not get to taste -- one
>Mrs. Quoad witheld -- was the Fire of Paradise [...]
>So can we look at the DECD as some kind of allegory for Slothrop
>going through some kind of hell in order to get to Paradise, only
>to be turned back at the gates?

> Don Larsson wrote in AH&TRP 13/1/97
> To what extent are the quest-objects
>of Pynchon's novels (and there is at least one in each of them) just
>McGuffins?

Just comic relief???  Me, I reckon this piece is one of the funniest
episodes in the book, brilliantly paced, a great take on the innocent/simple
new worlder in perverse/sophisticated/decadent oldworld. It is a joy to read
out loud
The Meggazone existed ( these days Fisherman's Friends is an equivalent),
wine gums are still available, but as for the rest of them, I have no idea
though I kinda feel TP probably had a lot of fun making them up.  
        Joe's allegorical interpretation makes sense but so does Don's
suggestion in a different thread, re quests as McGuffins.
        Maybe all quest objects are McGuffins.  Each Pynchonian quest
operates, like the I Ching or Tarot, as a griddle through which the quester
sifts their own experience.  The quest object simply keeeps the quester moving.
  The Fire of Paradise is a potential quest object but that quest will,  the
narrator suggests, lead to places representative of times gone by, quiet,
placid,  untouched by the War,  just what Slothrop could do with - later. So
maybe its a missed exit the author is omniescently pointing to,  the sweet a
missed mcGuffin.

        BTW English sweets cover a rather wide range and generally are
probably just as much sugar and chocolate as US sweets.  German cookies I
know not but Belgian chocolate is highly rated.
Until another time -  Mike W 
        
                                  
                                           
Mike Weaver (pic at gn.apc.org)