GRGR(7) Pointy's "sentiments d'emprise" 136-144

[Paul Mackin]

On Fri, 30 Jul 1999, rj wrote:

> I like (but haven't quite 'got') the futuristic dream of the Champion
> Weimaraner, Pointy's white whale. What is the significance of the dog's
> name (and number)? ("Reichssieger" = 'hero of the empire'?) "Thanatz"
> and "Alpdrucken" are names which will become quite significant in other
> contexts later. Is Pointy psychically attuned to some collective
> consciousness or cosmic flow here? (Another irony?)

There's a lot to boggle the mind here. P makes things quite difficult for
us on some things while at the same time he pursues some almost
trivially simple idea like the distinction between the V1 and V2
sound/impact-wise  into the ground. He seems to me to alternatively
inflate, then deflate the whole proceedings. He's still great and I mean
no disrespect.  

Mention of slaying the Minotaur completely clinches the conclusion  that
much more is at stake than figuring out how Slothrop CAUSES the rockets to
fall. Some deep and truly dread-making bind is in the works. The talk
about Inside and Outside and the idea that S's cortex is the
Interface make me almost think at times that what we're really talking
about is the maddening mind/body problem or the consciousness problem for
nondualist scientists. Finding the material basis for "mind" is the most
challenging problem for physiology. Workers who see themselves as
developing from the Pavlovian or behaviorist school have  always been
deliberately neglectful of this knotty problem though they surely must one
and all have worried and had their sleep disturbed over it as has
Pointy. Perhaps Pointy realizes he has in his hands at last the ideal
subject with which to make  the breakthrough. He is even willing to start
considering psychic phenomonon and the like. 

So what P may really be discussing here all the time is subjectivity and
objectivity. Quite po-mo. One clue is the three word sentence "Sign and
symptoms." Pointy is a physician by training. His professional approach to
the mind/body problem is defined by these two terms. The sign is what the
doctor sees in examining the patient or reads off the instrument. The
symptom on the other hand is  what is in the patients consciousness with
respect to his own condition.  

Above all, Pointy is way above average in being haunted by the mind/body
problem--he's so repressed wouldn't we all agree.

This definitely deserves further thought.

		P.