GRGR(14) 305.10 : ' ROCKET LIMERICKS '

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

Doug Millison wrote:
> 
> Great notes so far! Lots to engage with and respond to.
> 
> >305.10 : ' ROCKET LIMERICKS '
> > Well, what do you make of these?
> 
> I'm beginning to sound like Johnny One-note again,  fear, but the limericks
> bring to my mind the songs that accompany the rides ("It's a Small World"
> and "Pirates of the Caribbean" especially) at Disneyland -- fierce
> parodies, just as Slothrop's whole trip here has an E-ticket ride from hell
> quality to it.
> 
> d  o  u  g    m  i  l  l  i  s  o  n
> http://www.dougmillison.com
> http://www.online-journalist.com

Hell yes. Lots of Hells here. We ended part II (Whitsun by
the sea, Pentecost, 20, May 1945) and now we are tripping
about May 12-19. Slothrop is a Peace/war "correspondent"
searching for a story--HISstory, for clues and "signs will
find him here in the Zone, and ancestors will reassert
themselves." "Signs of Katje and DOUBLES too," will find him
here. These first two chapters, like the last two are double
chapters or paired chapters. Weisenburger notes the feast
days of the ice saints (he can not identify Sophie). These
saints are very important signs. Most of the signs in these
two chapters are doubles or multiples. Who are these saints?
Is it only their dates that matter? Hell no! Pynchon here,
is doing what Pynchon does best--parodistic, comedic,
fantastic. First we get Homer:

"We are safely past the days of the Eis-Heiligen--St.
Pancratius, St. Servatius, St Bonifacius, die kalte
Sophie...they hover in clouds above the vineyards, holy
beings in ice, ready with a breath, an intention, to ruin
the year with frost and cold." GR.281

"By night our ship ran onward toward the Ocean's bourne, the
realm and region of the Men of Winter, hidden in the mist
and cloud." The Odyssey, "A Gathering of Shades, BK XI,
14-17, Fitgerald trans.

Later we will get Dante:

"the multitudes who are passed over by God and History."
GR.299

"The worlds will not record their having been there;
Heaven's mercy and its justice turn from them." The Divine
Comedy, Inferno, Canto III, 48-51, Musa trans.

But before we go to Hell we need to deal with the ice
saints. Who are they? And what the hell have they got to do
with all these mythological underworlds (from Homer to the
Herero) and how the hell did we get here anyway, Dorothy?
Were we blown by Circe's wind? One of those saints has shoes
for Slothrop. Slothrop's blistered feet are not shoed by the
saint, but they are soothed by mother earth and a good witch
gives him his doubles boots. 

Hashing it out by the Window Pane---Terrance