GRGR(3): Pointsman and Chivalry

[Bruce Sublett]

Since we're playing with chivalric structures here, think about both the
boys in the BOQ and the collected eccentrics in the White Visitation as
heirs to the Round Table.  England under seige by a foreign power, kingdom
threatened by inexplicable sorcerous forces (V2 as science indistinguishable
from magic), etc.  I think it's stretching to try to draw parallels between
specific characters, but Mexico comes across sort of like Lancelot--a
basically decent sort physically bound to a seductive woman and Pointsman is
the closest thing to a Merlin figure as he dabbles in science tinged with
magic.  Pirate Prentice comes across more like Gawain, and there's certainly
an overtone of Mordred in Teddy Bloat.

But Slothrop is clearly a Parsival analog (subject of my single foray in
academic writing).  He's an outsider, naive to the point of pleasant
stupidity, given to outrageous costumes, and guided toward an eventual
apotheosis by any number of women.

BS