GRGR (7): The minotaur

[David Morris]

Lars Frehse:
>[snip] I think that Slothrop is not the minotaur [snip]
>
>"But now with Slothrop in it [...] Might Pointsman get
>to have a go at the minotaur after all?" (143.22)
>
>After rereading those two pages a couple of times I came to
>the following conclusion: The labyrinth is the human brain.
>When we look at the human brain (at a picture I mean, don´t
>try it actually at home!) it looks very much like one. Also
>it has the colour of wax and in Pointys dream of defeating
>the labyrinth the main chamber "flow[s] like wax" (143.14).
>
>[snip] (144.23) Pointy thinks he can overcome the old master
>of the brain (the minotaur) and replace him thus starting a
>new age of reason.[snip]

The brain/labyrinth connection makes much sense.  I do believe that
Slothrop is the Minotaur, just as that prize German dog in Pointsman's
recurring dream is the Minotaur.  That dream which recurs, but with
variations in setting and prey, bears review:

----------
(142.25) ...and at last, sifting among them, he finds it, the
identifying code [...] the underlying structure in the turning face, the
meeting eyes...
----------

"Identifying code" is a play on words.  The heart of the dream is
"identification" with the prey.  The hunter and hunted, man and beast,
man and monster identify, they are the same person.  In Jungian terms,
the minotaur is Pointsman's shadow.

----------
(142.25) Minotaur blood, the fucking beast, cries from far inside
himself whose manliness and violence surprise him
----------

The result of this meeting of eyes is annihilation, nuclear meltdown.
Does Pointsman know that attaining his scientific goal is akin to
suicide, the Empire's suicide?  He does down deep, but its the only
thing that makes him feel like a man.

David