GRGR(6) - Ep. 15

[Gary Thompson]

RJ raises the possibility that Slothrop's memory of Darlene in this
episode has been planted (Terrance comments thereupon as well). Great
posts, by the way--

rj wrote:
> . . . they are "independent of his shorthand of stars." (115) Has Slothrop 
> been set up here, the memory
> "planted" while he was in St Veronica's, perhaps? . . . 
> The section at 115.26, as the memory of previously being at Mrs Quoad's
> flat begins "reassembling" for Slothrop, could represent: a) the
> surfacing of a suppressed memory; or b) some type of hypnotic suggestion
> being enacted (don't forget that Mrs Quoad's a "witch".)

I don't think the point is for us to figure this out--probably most
readers go with the conventional fictional reading which suggests that
events occur in a "realistic" fashion unless there are cues (such as in
"The Kenosha Kid") indicating fantasy, surrealism, or other modes, and
then are involved in some confusion at the later point when Pointsman's
crack investigators apparently discover inconsistencies--but the point
is the indeterminacy. There's a bit at the start of Borges' story "Tlön,
Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" that comes to mind here (but did I think of it all
by myself, or was it planted . . . ?):

"Bioy Casares had dined with me that night and talked to us at length
about a great scheme for writing a novel in the first person, using a
narrator who omitted or corrupted what happened and who ran into various
contradictions, so that only a handful of readers, a very small handful,
would be able to decipher the horrible or banal reality behind the
novel. From the far end of the corridor, the mirror was watching us . .
." (_Ficciones_ 17)

So we think we're supposed to see this as a representation of an actual
historical world, tongue-holocausts and all, bolstered on the one hand
by period references and fidelity to what that London _Times_ sez was
going on? And on the other hand we get giant Adenoids and Pirates hired
to manage other people's fantasies, Angels over Lübeck and some linkage
between Slothrop's stars (women?) and rockets? 

I think both are shadow games: there's a real holocaust out there and
real Nazi-corporate types, and there are many layers of representation
of these things, and we're being pulled back and forth, in modes
entertaining and ominous among many colorations, and the main result for
me is to inspire the repeated question about representation. What's the
link between words on the page and anything else? 

It's _not_ that there's no such link: there are many such links,
including some that are privileged over others (a.k.a. dominant
ideology, I suppose), and P is mixing it up so as to create an
equivalent of his Zone, wherein we may construct or infer alternative
versions. We're as much wanderers in this territory as Slothrop, because
the area of reference isn't London or the ETO or 1944-45 any more, so
much as where we live. (Does anyone close this book and say, "Wow, what
a great read, now I can put this back on the shelf," as with, say,
_Hannibal_?) (I don't think it's a high-status "small handful," if
indeed that was what Borges had in mind above.) 

There's a passage I'm looking for about how information is restricted
precisely from those who like Slothrop had the greatest interest in
finding it, throwing them (us?) back onto dreams, fantasies,
drug-induced visions, u.s.w. Anyone have a page no.?

I can see why Jeremy had trouble getting a purchase on the Advent
section . . . 

Whaddya think?

Gary