GRGR(13) Notes (Pt 1)

[RICHARD_WILSON at udlp.com]

218.1 "Eisheiligen" - "holy beings of ice", saints whose feast days fall in
early May, fodder for German language almanacs, probably of pagan origin

281.11 "dragon's teeth" - from the Greek myth of Cadmus (though i can't quite
remember what sort of oddysey / quest, if any, he was on).

281.12 "bare feet" - could symbolize that Slothrop is actually no longer among
the living (a'la _Abbey Road_ album cover) at this point of the novel

23 "red tulip... sign of Katje" - since tulips are mostly Dutch and possibly
because the color red is associated with the White Goddess 

281.41 "signs of Katje and doubles" - not sure about the "doubles" part - could
this mean Tchitcherine and Enzian? (i don't exactly consider the phantom girl on
the next page Katje's doppleganger since the phantom is invisible while much of
the portrayal TRP gives Katje is visually desciptive)

282.2 "lapis lazuli eyes" - from _The Tempest_ (according to Doug - haven't
confirmed yet)

282.3 "traded them for a ride and half a boiled potato" - so 'eyes for eyes' but
what about 'teeth for teeth'? we
have "dragon's teeth" on 281.11. maybe this is why it's only half a potato...

282.6 "Major General Kammler" - as Fowler explains, a group of military officers
attempted to assassinate Hitler in 1944 with a suitcase bomb but failed.
afterwards, Hitler felt that the SS was the only organization he could still
trust. As a result, control of various programs and projects was ceded to the
SS, including the V-weapons. 

282.7 "corporate death" - interesting phrase which i believe is used elsewhere
in GR in a different context. in this case, the possibilities for 'corporate
afterlife' would have included Florida/South-Cal and Vladivostok.

282.41 "an older bestiary" ... ". . . unicorns, chimaeras" - more references to
pagan traditions "re-asserting themselves" in the absence of control structures?


283.4 "if she really was Katje" - later echoed by Slothrop asking Geli, "Are you
really a witch?". 

283.6 "she had vaporized in his arms" -- one of the legendary abilities of
vampires is to assume a vaporous form.
also (for me at least) conjures up image of civilians close enough to ground
zero to be vaporized by a nuclear blast

283.11 "he thinks of them as Katje's" - but Katje does not possess any special
psychic powers that we're aware of, does she? 

283.14 "was one Franz Pokler" - i hadn't noticed the parallels between Pokler
and Slothrop's in previous reads (perhaps Franz is one of the "doubles"
mentioned earlier....). so Pokler and Slothrop are attached here with Imipolex-G