GRGR(14) the target slips away

[Jeremy Osner]

Every time I read the passage at the top of p. 298 it really catches my
attention, I'm not sure why but I'd like to figure it out. So...

An Interesting Hypothesis (but it'll never fly)
--------------------------------------------------

Pynchon is sitting at his desk, writing about Slothrop's ride to
Mittelwerke with the American lieutenant; he slips into Slothrop's head
and starts in on a fantasy visit to Mittelwerke, i.e. Slothrop's
anticipations of what marvels he might find there. The level he's
writing on is not Slothrop's conscious internal narrative; I don't think
TS was riding along in the Mercedes thinking to himself, "hm... I wonder
if there'll be someone there offering black-market tours of the secret
passages to Dora and the Rakenstadt..."

So the only way I can make sense of this is to think of it as Slothrop's
repressed dream-reality, part of himself which he does not know and
neither do we or even Pynchon, really, but we can try to explore it some
with fantasy and metaphor. Which attempt is what Pynchon is engaged in,
and engaging us in, here.

Which brings us to the mention of Imipolex G, and the sentence at the
top of p. 298: "Wait -- which one of them was thinking that? Monitors,
get a fix on it, *hurry up* --" I reckon that is the director of the
fantasy (Slothrop's or Pynchon's) speaking there; the aim of the fantasy
is a deeper understanding in the fantasizer of himself -- the fantasizer
remains conscious during the fantasy, conscious enough to realize that
the mention of Imipolex G (the forbidden fruit) will bring the fantasy
to an end, scrambling to save what shards of Truth he can from the
wreckage. "Which one of them was thinking that?" he needs to know, needs
to know what the forbidden fruit means to him.

Of course there are many other ways of spinning this. I'd be interested
to know what you think.

Jeremy

--
David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me
out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of
the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of the
Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the
LORD be with thee.

I Samuel 17:37
http://www.readin.com/books/isamuel/david.html