GRGR(4) - Slothrop's Rape

[David Morris]

Dudes,
>Well, if it's not the 3rd person omniscient narrator,
>who's voice is it??  Is it Slothrop's?  Is it Pointsman's?
>Is it Mexico's?  Spectro's? Do we have a clue?  And if it is
>not the author's voice, then whose voice is it?  Does it matter
>at all?  I think it matters a lot.
>
>And if it is the Author's voice, then when he says Slothrop
>escaped with "his virgin asshole preserved"  is he being ironic?
>And if he's being ironic, why does he bother with the next
>sentence?
>

The sentence is written, IMO, to include numerous opinions about Slothrop's
having escaped, which he HAS, in his fantasy.  But even there Slothrop's not
quite sure, so he doesn't say anything.  Remember those insulated socks?

(64.40) "but these insulate so well, or he has progressed so far down the
toilet by now, that he can hardly feel the hands at all..."

"Hardly feel" does not mean they're not there, in fact it implies they ARE
still there.

>Fully quoted:
>
>"Now some folks might say whew, thank God for that, and others
>moaning a little, aw shucks, but Slothrop doesn't say much of
>anything cause he didn't feel much of anything."  Because he
>repressed it?  Because it didn't happen in the first place?
>Because he's stonyonyoned?
>

Your pick.

>Is there an indicator that the author is being ironical?  Means
>the opposite to what he writes?  Means something other than what
>he writes?
>
>I think he is titillating the reader.  I think he makes the
>scene a highly charged near miss.  I think he focuses the reader
>on all the sexual stuff (None of which is real. It is a drug induced
>trance, we shouldn't forget.  If he gets raped it is inside a
>drugged fantasy.)

That's YOUR opinion, which you cling to as if it's GOTTA be so.

>and all the disgusting fantasy shit, so he can
>drop the political assassination stuff on us, hardly noticeable,
>a grace note at the margin of consciousness.  He does give us the
>mention of JFK later in the SAME bleeping PARAGRAPH.  And still a
>page or two later the sentence, "And only one president, and one
>assassin, and one election."

So you want to drop all the content as merely a vehicle for a political
statement?

>This is the essential Pynchon, feinting, diverting our
>attention, and then dropping some item on us that is the telling
>detail. IMHO, the issue of assassins and assassinations takes up
>more of the novel, as the band plays on, than the question of
>whether or not Slothrop was raped (in his fantasy).

How you cling to that.

>
>This is one of TRP's signature tricks.  And he means for it
>to push the hot button in his readers.  We all react, on one
>level or another, to Slothrop's wild ride.  It's a GOTCHA!  So
>we won't notice the other minor details that turn out to be major.
>That's what I think is going on.  Foreground/background reversal.
>And this one proves to be a startling example.  But what do I know?
>I'm only...
>                                      Max

And I'm only David Morris