GRGR Continues

[David Morris]

>From: "Clare Kennedy"
>
>What's going on with Slothrop in this discussion? Can we discuss him?
>
[snip]
>
>"Signs," the book says, Slothrop will find "Signs…here in the Zone, and
>ancestors will reassert themselves." What ancestors reassert themselves 
>here
>in the Zone? What are the signs? Someone asked about "Schwarz" (gerat, 
>kommando).
>Is Slothrop a "Schwarz" of some sort? Who are Slothrop's parents?
>Does he have more than one? Does he have two moms and two dads or more? How
>about his old man? Is Jamf his old man? Is Lyle his uncle? Is Enzian his 
>brother?
>What are the signs? If Enzien is Slothrop's brother, what about Hogan 
>Slothrop?
>If Slothrop is Enzien's  brother what about Blicero? Is Blicero Slothrop's 
>father,
>if not, than Slothrop and Enzien must have thesame mother, right? >How is 
>Enzien's relationship to his father, Blicero, different from Slothrop's 
>relationship
>to his father Jamf? What's the most confusing day in Harlem? >Remember, Tom 
>likes this kind of joke. What does that fruit-loopy toucan say, follow your 
>nose…

I think there are parallels/mirrors going on with the four "Sons":  
Slothrop, Enzian, Tchitcherine, and Gottfried.  I don't think linking their 
Mothers will be productive, except in the general sense of "Motherhood."  
The Fathers can be more directly compared as agents of the War:
----------
(176.20)  They'll always tell you that the fathers are "taken," but fathers 
only leave - that's what it really is.  The fathers are all covering for 
each other, that's all.
----------
The War is primarily a male institution.  It conditions everyone into 
believing "that we are meant for work and government, for austerity:  and 
these shall take priority over love, dreams, the spirit, the senses and the 
other second-class trivia that are found among the idle and mindless hours 
of the day....Damn them, they are wrong.  They are insane." (177.5)

In that context Jessica, the feminine, is the refuge from the war, but more 
specifically it is "the Union" of the pair:
----------
(177.20)You go from dream to dream inside me.  You have passage to my last 
shabby corner, and there, among the debris, you've found life.  I'm no 
longer sure which of all the words, images, dreams or ghosts are "yours" and 
which are "mine."  It's past sorting out.  We're both someone new now, 
someone incredible...
     His act of faith.
----------
David Morris

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