GRGR(4): Kenosha Kid//:: a 'formalistic' reading

[Lorentzen / Nicklaus]

I want to suggest a somehow stupid reading of the first two pages & the last 
four lines of this episode. Maybe it helps to understand some 'formal' aspects 
of this "outstanding enigma()" (Weisenburger). 

The facsimile-like graphic representation of the letters with its detailed 
address information, which awakens in the reader the expectation of a 'rational' 
communication, stands in contrast to the limited content.

The question "Did I ever bother you, ever, for anything, in your life?" can be 
observed as a 'performative self-contradiction'. By asking for an answer & 
communicating affective commitment (: "Yours truly"), Slothrop, in fact, is 
bothering the Kid. Same paradox with the answer: "You never did". A disproof in 
itself. "Ass backwards", so to say.

Never having done the Kenosha Kid myself, I understand something like "Stop 
making sense!", when I read all the different versions of this sentence: "But 
you never did the 'Kenosha', kid! ...But you never did the 'Kenosha Kid'... You! 
never did the Kenosha Kid (...) ... You? Never! Did the Kenosha Kid (...) ... 
You never did 'the', Kenosha Kid! ... But you never did the Kenosha Kid. ... You 
never did the Kenosha Kid. ... YOU, never? (...) DID the Kenosha Kid?". Seems 
that only "You never did?!? The Kenosha Kid!?" was forgotten. 

I think that this is some kind of mindfuck. Before we (: TP, TS & the readers) 
can descend to the unconscious (- in its 'socio-anal' aspects here represented 
by the toilet in Boston's Roseland Ballroom), the 'rational ego' has to be 
casted out by frustating its efforts of unmistakable interpretation. The episode 
"seems to come full circle" (Weisenburger). A formal hint against linear 
sense-making. Round & round & round & round the interpretations go. But WE have 
to go ON! We have to go DEEPER ... 

Let's get real with 'ontological pluralism'!

Furthermore, the pseudo-scientific numbers in brackets - not only (1) & (5), but 
also (2.1) & (3.1) - undermine the trust in the given information furthermore. 
It's like Mr. P. wants to evoke the spirit of deadly scientific abstraction to 
exorcize it before we go on with our trip. 

In a way, the framework of this episode reminds me of the end of "Ulysses". 
Before we can float with Molly Bloom's (un)conscious, the conventional 
expectations of novel-readers get fulfilled in a pseudo-'rational' form in 
chapter 17 (- "* What parallel courses did Bloom and Stephen follow returning? 
..."). & aren't the variations on "You never did the Kenosha Kid!" quite similar 
to "Sinbad the Sailor and Tinbad the Tailor and Jinbad the Jailer and Whinbad 
the Whaler and Ninbad the Nailer and Finbad the Failer and Binbad the Bailer and 
Pinbad the Pailer and Minbad the Mailer and Hinbad the Hailer and Rinbad the 
Railer and Dinbad the Kailer and Vinbad the Quailer and Linbad the Yailer and 
Xinbad the Phthailer"?!  

Yours, Kai ///::: If this is total bullshit, please let me know! I'm just a mad 
sociologist, who has never seen a copy of 'Pynchon Notes' in his life...