GRGR(3) - The Cabal: The Quest for the One & Only Slothrop

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

Interesting post David, thank you. At this point in the novel, we might want to
think about why Roger wants him and why Jessica is jealous.

David Morris wrote:

> Spectro & Pointsman consulting in the lab:
> (47.23) The autoclave simmers its fine clutter of steel bones.  Steam drifts
> into the glare of the gooseneck lamp, now and then becoming very bright, and
> the shadow of men's gestures may pass through it, knife-edged, swooping very
> fast.  But both these faces are unusually reserved, kept well back, in the
> annulus of night. [Annulus: Etymology: Medieval Latin, from Latin annulus
> finger ring, from anus ring]
>
> (48.11) In here the tiny office space is the cave of an oracle: steam
> drifting, sibylline cries arriving out of darkness... Abreactions of the
> Lord of the Night...
> ------------------------------------------------
> These two are mad scientists, Frankenstein-style.  Their goal/means is a
> Magic-Science, Alchemy?  The Night is the land where the Unconscious breaks
> through to this world via dreams.  The Lord of the Night?
>
> Pointsman seeks a "breakthrough" into uncharted lands of psychiatry, a
> discovery which will lift him to the realm of the gods.  He seeks it through
> a mind pushed "ultraparadoxical" or maybe even beyond...   Pathology, the
> abnormal, the extreme is examined to observe the mechanics of disease
> AMPLIFIED, to see if keys can be found to "adjust" the machine.
>
> Pointsman's motive seems to be self-aggrandizement.  Is he a zealot, seeking
> to enshrine Pavlov's god? (Hee Hee)  Is he a genuine searcher?
>
> ----------------------------------------------------
> He (and many others) think/hope they have found the Holy Grail in Slothrop
> (48.18):
>
> [Pointsman:] "Unethical?"
> [Spectro:] [...]"No, I'm only trying to justify it, experimentally. I can't.
> It's only one man. [The Only One]
> [Pointsman:] "It's [THE] Slothrop [!!!].  You know what he is.  Even Mexico
> thinks... oh, the usual. Precognition. Psychokinesis. [...] But suppose
> _you_ had [...] ...some pathology, a perfect mechanism..."
>
> ----------------------------------------------------
> Slothrop embodies EVERYONE'S key to the universe.  They all want him.  He
> explains/embodies EVERYTHING!  And if they can't have him, control him,
> they'd rather kill him.  A familiar sub-theme: Christ and the Pharisees.