GRGR(9) Pointsman/Slothrop

[MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu]

Staggering like Beetlefeetlebaum, I try (lord knows how hard), to contribute something of 
value to GRGR (9):

Has anybody remarked that Thomas Gwenhidwy is generally taken to be TRP's avatar in 
the book?  The old welsh tenor voice, the beard, the apotheothis among the children--and 
the wordplay in the name: Thomas Gone-and-hid-away (or Gonna-hide-away).   It seems a 
consoling thought somehow, yet complicates question of the moral status of the Seven, 
the holders of the Book.
To Andrew's query:
>One reason I asked about the dream is that it is
>retold in the 2nd person. Who is saying `you this ...' and `you that...'?

Always felt lke the narrator here is doing the Uncle Charles thing (see Hugh Kenner 
JOYCE's VOICES) and merging himself with Pointsman's consciousness, his point (as it 
were) of view.  This p.o.v. reveals, in typical Pointsman fashion,how it thinks even  of 
itself as an *other*; Pointsman sees himself in his dreams as a subject (or, as Andrew 
points out, an *object*) of his own awareness,

still lumbering,
johnnybomb