GRGR(14) the target slips away

[Jeremy Osner]

David Morris wrote:

> I honestly think the narrative perspectives/voices throughout GR shift so
> quickly that it's a loosing battle to try to affix a person, dream-world or
> not, to every scene or even remembrance.  It bogs one down in trying to keep
> a grip on a reality we know.  If there's one thing you don't want to do when
> starting to trip is trying NOT to trip.

I can see what you're saying here, and agree up to a point -- but I think
there's a different way of looking at the question as well. As I read the book I
definitely experience junctures where I know the narrative shifts from a
perspective to a different perspective. (This in addition to large blocks in
which the perspective is constantly shifting and impossible to tag.)

Two such juncture occur between "as in Imipolex G --" and "Wait -- which one of
them was thinking that?", and between "But the target slips away." and "'They
handle their own security down inside,' the young rail is telling Slothrop" -- I
don't think it's meaningless to try and figure out just what the narrative shift
is here. Call me anal-retentive but some of my best trips have involved keeping
my head above water during certain key periods.

Jeremy

--
The right-hand, still untasted part of the novel, which,
during our delectable reading, we would lightly feel,
mechanically testing whether there were still plenty
left (and our fingers were always gladdened by the
placid, faithful thickness) has suddenly, for no reason
at all, become quite meager: a few minutes of quick
reading, already downhill, and -- O horrible!

Invitation to a Beheading
Vladimir Nabokov
http://www.readin.com/books/invitationbeheading/