Discussion opener for GRGR(9)

[David Casseres]

I have gotten so far ahead of the GRGR that I have to think hard in order 
to recognize the contexts of these questions.  So I hope my responses to 
a few of them won't turn out to be nonsense....

>10) `but the underlying structure is the turning face' (142.31).Any
>     thoughts on the significance of this? Childhood terrors? Orpheus?
>     What? And there are several other scenes where a face is turned
>     and an eye is caught which seem to relate to the Orpheus legend
>     e.g, Slothrop catching Katje's eye in the casino just as he
>     recognises her preterite nature and the threat to himself of
>     preterition.

It's the Orpheus legend but also something else -- a dream-archetype 
(childhood terrors, yes) where the face turns toward us and just at that 
instant when we are about to see who it is -- and we think we already 
know who it is -- suddenly, shockingly, maybe we are about to have an 
instant's premonition that it isn't after all and a catastrophic 
substitution has taken place -- it isn't the One, it's going to be the 
Other, and the heart utters a shriek that is cut off before it can be 
heard.

(For some reason I associate this archetypal image with Orson Welles.  I 
think perhaps in The Third Man there is a moment when Welles makes his 
first appearance as Harry Lyme, seen from behind turning his head, 
suddenly seen, saying "Hello, Holly."  Am I imagining this shot?  It 
isn't actually the archetype I've described, but a variation in which we 
don't know who it is, but think we do, and the shock comes when that 
cheekbone turns from abstract line to facial feature, and we see that 
yes, by god it IS Orson Welles.)

>14) `This surrender is his only gift' (145.32) Just had to remark on
>     this lovely echoing phrase.

One of the things I like most about these Openers, Andrew, is your 
reminders that we are dealing here with a writer of wonderful, often 
lyrically gorgeous prose.

>17) `the best theory of how is Rollo's' (147.26). Anyone know enough
>     physiology to validate the melanocyte-CNS link?

I am pretty sure that I remember such a link from my long-ago course in 
vertebrate embryology.

>19) `Our history is an aggregate of lost moments' (149.1). Now that's
>     what I call an epigram.
>
>20) `All the radii of the room are hers' (149.28). Again just had to
>     mention this lovely description.

Thanks for those, too.

>26) `Wimpe the IG-Man' (152.19). Later on at the seance he is the
>     V-mann. Who is he, though? What is his significance here and
>     elsewhere in the novel?

I keep trying to connect Wimpe with Wimpy, saying "I will be glad to pay 
you tomorrow for a hamburger today," but I can't quite make it stick.

>29) `KPD' (153.40) Kommunist Partei Deutschland?

Gotta be.


Cheers,
David