GRGR(14) plot summary

[JL]

p l o t  s u m m a r y
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'It's a Sunday funnies dawn,' and the comic-book colours of the
sky are reflected in the muddy pavement.  As above, so below;
and the imagery immediately turns mythical as these are not your
regular fleshtones, but those of sliced 'n' diced werewolf and
butchered Beast.

Slothrop is heading for the Mittelwerke. To complement his Scuffling
outfit, he is now wearing Tchitcherine's boots. They are too big
for him, but Geli has also provided cloth from an old chemise as
padding in the toes.

Slothrop hitches a ride with a driver attached to the unit guarding
the factory, who starts to explain the situation there.  The reader
is sent on ahead, presumably in Slothrop's mind, for a brief tour of
the facility...

Interregnum.  The site is a major tourist attraction, where sightseers,
who are in fact politico-corporate technological looters, are themselves

being gently exploited by the personnel on guard.

We see some examples of the Angles - Yellow James's fast food outlet;
Nick De Profundis selling rocket components as souvenirs.
Then, in one of the book's closest brushes with the Holocaust,
'Micro' Graham's little sideline : excursions into the Dora prison
camp.  We are treated to his Tempting sales pitch and his 'basic
instruction' on how to deal with the ghosts that remain. However,
that's for the 'gullible', not for the likes of you & me oh dear
me no.

Instead we pass on, to the haute-couture spacesuit collection of
Heini of Berlin, and (in the designer's vision?) a glimpse of life as
it is, or will be, lived in the Raketen-Stadt. These are the familiar
images of sci-fi movies - with a slight S&M twist - a-and the characters

are engaged in a communal (deca-)dance: the Waltz of the Future
(296.35).

Space-Helmets are likened to the harvested skulls of Titans who might
once have lived there. But the view from inside this 'unpleasant
headgear' is, if anything, myth-shattering.  Enzian's Illumination
may have been a construct.  Cave paintings lose their symbolic layer
of 'primitivism' and are seen for what they are, 'lit sharply'.
(But is this just another kind of filter?)

Then, like Alice, we're falling *into* the paintings, 'on the last
limb of our trajectory into the Raketen-Stadt,' (297.24). Which turns
out not to be as we were 'programmed to expect', but rather as specified

by the 'Articles of Immachination' (297.36).  Each individual has to
find connections of his own to make sense of it, and by these
connections
are ye judged. Or, at least, monitored.  A very slick switch here, back
to the 'reality' of Slothrop's arrival, as the young driver explains
that 'They handle their own security'(298.3).

The parabolic entrance arch is the work of Speer disciple Etzel Ölsch;
whose background and inspirations are discussed as Slothrop enters the
tunnel, receiving a 'crystal visa' in the form of snot on his fake ID.
It's cold and dark.  The condition of Tannhauserism is described (in
a second-person flip) as a love of being taken under mountains.  It's
not clear if Slothrop suffers from this, but he does 'know this place'
(299.23).  The artificial, and fleeting, quality of light here is
stressed; darkness is described as being 'mined' and 'chiseled' by
'one of the great secret ikons of the Humility' (299.28): the light
bulb.

More information on the factory's design follows: the tunnels form an
elongated SS.  The scene shifts to Ölsch's studio.  He seems
somewhat unaware of, or unconscious to, the breadth of symbolism in
his works; but the exploding cigar he puffs emphasises his receptivity
to
'imagery associated with the Rocket' (300.41).  The double-integral
motif leads to a description of the guidance system of the A4, the tasks

it must perform to know it's own position, and the significance of that
Brennschluss moment.  But it's 'also the shape of lovers curled asleep,'

(302.25) and Slothrop's thoughts turn to Katje. Thoughts of what the
future might hold for them, and Them.

Lots of flip-flopping here between past and future -- it is 'hard down
here in the Mittelwerke to live in the present for very long' -- the
dichotomy of truth and possibility, and the paranoid equivalents: fear
of the known and of the unknown.  This is 'the new Uncertainty'
(303.34).

Back to the action, and after a brief erotic daydream (of an Hawaiian
welcome - what is it with P and those islands?), Slothrop happens upon
a beery party of Americans and Russians down in a 'pit'.  Rocket
Limericks
are being sung.  Slothrop, still Scuffling along, joins the party by
means
of a scary cable ride, only to be recognised by a bruised Major Marvy
(in
whose honour they are gathered).

There ensues a Krazy slapstick chase, through light and shade, in which
Slothrop makes another swift costume change (into paint-spattered
overalls),
and meets the strange Professor Glimpf, who for some reason is keen to
aid his escape. They make their getaway by Mittelwerk Express, back out
into the daylight.

The Prof guides Slothrop by stolen car up through the mountains to a
'dilapidated' castle.  This is one of the unlikely places where rocket
research was done, and guess what, it still houses the 'mad Nazi
scientist
lab' (314.8) of Glimpf's colleague, Zwitter.   Slothrop wonders why it
might remain operational, and the section ends with a little ditty about

preparing for 'thim Rooskies,/ And Go-round Number Three.'

JL
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 ' Limey intelligence sure ain't too intelligent, hahaha, '
                       [ - GR p.287 ]
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