GRGR (6): Darlene and other British delicacies

[Michael Perez]

I read through episode 15 again with fond memories of my first time
through _GR_ in May of 1974, a reward for making it through my freshman
year at college - reading that wasn't assigned.  The Mrs. Quoad schtick
struck me then as comic relief.  My second time through, my reaction
was a bit more profound, I thought it might be something like culture
clash.  This time, I'm undecided, having read the "assigned" passages
twice last week. Is it what we do for love?  I mean, Slothrop is
suitably rewarded for his ordeal.  Since British food is
stereotypically slammed for being shall we say for those with an
acquired taste for it, it seems rather gratuitous to perpetuate the
stereotype.  However, it is quite hilarious.  
Speaking of Slothrop's reward, the episode ends rather spookily with
someone looking in the window at them and Darlene suspecting some
connection between Slothrop's sudden erection and the blast.  Why would
she suspect this connection?  And what might she suspect? Some clues to
the mystery stimulus, maybe? Then there's the problem Gary rightly
points out about the SEZ WHO investigations later in the book.  Does
the information for the current episode come from the watcher behind
the orange shade and turn out to be a fabrication?  Or does this
episode serve to establish that it accually happened and that the later
investigation was faulty?  "And where, keepers of maps, specialists at
surveillance, would you say the next one will fall?"  [120.14-5]

Michael 




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