GRGR (15): Good & Evil: Utilitarianism

Seb Thirlway seb at thirlway.demon.co.uk
Wed Dec 15 20:28:21 CST 1999


From: David Morris <fqmorris at hotmail.com>
[snip]

>>Pointy discovers this, academically, without
>>realising it, because for him it's a step on the way to the
>>precise opposite - more control: one way out of the game is to
>>deliberately make yourself go paradoxical, i.e. turn your
>>pleasure/pain scale upside down, or ultra-paradoxical (and I've
>>never worked out the implications of this "ultra-paradoxical"
>>business - is it authentic Pavlov, or TRP's own invention?).
>>  So - S&M.
>
>Funny turn of events here also, though I'm not sure I fully
follow the logic
>of his transition.  Pointy IS looking for a door out of the
maze, knowing
>he's heading for a dead end, and starts to veer from orthodox
Pavlovianism.
>He does go "ultra-paradoxical" through his obsession with
Slothrop.  And he
>does gain more control, begins to feel his virility pumping, and
becomes the
>moving force at the White Visitation.  But how has he "turn his
>pleasure/pain scale upside down?"
>
I don't know at all, in terms of Pointy's own character - just
read of his encounter with Maud towards the end of Beyond the
Zero, and he seems much more human there - as he himself
realises, he's changed.  I only meant this in terms of what he
does with the dogs - I thought he'd "discovered" this paradoxical
and ultra-paradoxical business, but as it turns out (your later
post) it was already there in Pavlov.


seb




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