GRGR(4) - Slothrop's Rape

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

David Morris wrote:

> >From me earlier:
>
> >Main Entry: mau·vais quart d'heure
> >Pronunciation: mo-ve-k[a']r-d[oe]r
> >Etymology: French
> >: bad quarter hour : an uncomfortable though brief experience
> >
> >I'd say it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's going on up
> there.
>
> I think it's important to determine if Slothrop's rape and the whole Roxbury
> nightclub scene is a memory or a fantasy.  Specifically I'm talking about
> the part before his decent down the toilet.  My take is that Slothrop was
> actually raped, and that during the rape he blanks out an takes his journey
> to the underworld.  If you look at the text, he's first pondering whether or
> not to follow the harp, knowing his ass would be exposed, when he's then
> grabbed from behind and gets his pants pulled down.  Then he find himself
> travelling down the pipes to elude his attacker.  Of course he doesn't
> literally go down the pipes, but he does literally get raped.  This may have
> been the event which sent Slothrop "transmarginal."

Can we determine if Slothrop was raped, literally raped at this point in the
novel? Are there other factors you can direct us to further along in the text?

http://www.melville.org/pamphlet.htm