GRGR(15): Enzian, nihilism, and a few other things

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

Jeremy Osner wrote:
> 
> Apologizing as before for any incoherencies,
> 
> The first time we met Enzian, throwing Marvy from the train, he had the
> stamp of a Jesse James type -- but here on p. 318 (only a few days
> later) I don't get that impression anymore -- "...behind him another day
> of schemes, expediting, newly invented paperwork ...What Enzian wants to
> create will have no history."

I think this is a very important point. Enzian changes. Why?
Do the other characters in this train scene  change as well?
I think so. Enzian's first appearance is brief, so we don't
have as much to go on, but he changes.  With Marvy we have
more. Marvy's change is physical, in part because he has
been bruised, but he becomes more grotesque and more
allegorical in the scenes that follow his trip across the
background screen in the early scene on the train. Slothrop
is changing too, well he is always changing, but there is
one particular change I think worth noting, Slothrop is
getting cold again. It's a different chill now. Ancestors
will reassert themselves here. Who are these ancestors?
Uncle Lyle, Amy Spruce, Hogan and his buddies are here. How
about Enzian? Is he an ancestor? He's grown cold too. The
Whitman is here. Cold and North, but not all Norths are
white and not all white dresses go with a white stetson hat.
In the realm of Blicero things get to flipping and flopping
and one can almost begin to think the narrator is stopping
and Blicero is taking over the tale. 

OH Ishmael, Oh Ishmael?