GRGR (15): Good & Evil (was Enzian...)

[Seb Thirlway]

rj wrote

[snip]
>millison's contention that "it is the claim of innocence every
child
>molester makes" is simply not borne out by the text. Translating
it for
>him, the boy says, simply and clearly: "We make 'God' now
'master'."
>Weissmann looks up from his book "in alarm" because of the
blasphemy of
>it, and then they fuck. We aren't privy to what has gone before
vis a
>vis the sexual relationship between Weissmann and Enzian -- it
is simply
>not related. What Pynchon chooses to present us with in this
particular
>scene is *Enzian's* pederastic enthusiasm.(100.2-25)  And one
thing we
>do find out later is that Enzian was playing around with his
mentor's
>head, even at this early stage.(323.35-39)


I like the way Weissmann realises, looking back, that he'd
completely misinterpreted what Enzian said: the invocation of God
presses Weissmann's button, sending him off on a riff which is
entirely his own, or the Rhenish Missionary Society's - it's
because Weissmann believes in blasphemy, and is overwhelmed by
the desert, as a European,  that "the peril of buggering the boy
under the resonance of the sacred Name fills him insanely with
lust".

All Weissman's own very verbal, very European reaction - but "to
the boy, Ndjambi Karunga is what happens when they couple, that's
all".  Weissman couldn't get very far with this as a claim of
innocence, as he hasn't a clue what exactly is going on in
Enzian's head, thus what the boy actually means.  And his Rilkean
rhapsodies make him look momentarily very foolish, a bit
Humbert-ish.



seb