GRGR(13) Not In Kansas

[RICHARD_WILSON at udlp.com]

after Terrance's excellent, thoughtful, and detailed notes, summaries, and
questions, GRGR(13) will probably seem a tad shoddy and unstructured by
comparison. my most sincere apologies in advance.... -- rw

--
outline pp 281-295
---
things begin with Slothrop in the guise of Ian Scuffling en route from Zurich to
Nordhausen in his obsessive quest for clues about the S-Gerat. He reminisces for
a while about his most recent adventures. first he ran into a
little-girl-ghost/vampire whose doll's hair he was using as kindling (we are led
to believe that this little queen of transylvania is connected to Katje in
various ways). next he hopped a train (like a Kerouac character?). while aboard
he learned of the sinster Slothrop-Jamf connection from the documents he got
from Mario Schweitar in Zurich. later, still on the train but now the roof of a
car, he encountered first Major Marvy and then Enzian (who put in their first
appearances in the novel here). Enzian had tossed Marvy off the train.

then on p. 289, we return to the present as Slothrop arrives in Nordhausen,
wanders around a bit, and ends up in the company of Geli Tripping, a witch(?).
here the character Tchitcherine, a soviet agent and Geli's regular lover, is
first mentioned (i believe). Tchitcherine is presently away on unspecified
buisness so, natch, they couple... and in their post-coital chit-chat, Geli,
familiar with the details of Tchitcherine's mission, also mentions Rocket 00000
as well as the S-Gerat which she calls the "Schwarzgerat" (because Imipolex-G is
black in color, I guess - though we also have the Schwarzkommando and the
Schwarzvater to connect with). according to Geli, the latest intelligence report
to Tchitcherine (which he hasn't read yet) says that it's for sale. and then, in
spite of Slothrop's increasing paranoia about Tchitcherine, they couple again
(with Geli's baby-ruth-munching familiar, the owl Wernher, even getting in on
the act this time).

--
questions - to follow mostly, but for now...
--
1) "... from the hair of a blonde
 doll with lapis lazuli eyes. He kept those eyes." -- GR 282.1-2

why does pynchon tell us that Slothrop kept the eyes only to trade them for a
potato in the next sentence?
is this the first mention of potatoes in GR (outside the context of 'Gourd
Surprise', that is)?
potatoes, you might recall, have eyes too. so is this a pun on "an eye for an
eye"?
also, is there an echo of _The Wasteland_ ("those were pearls that were his
eyes") here... or WB Yeats' _Lapis Lazuli_?

2) TRP professes admiration for the work of Kerouac in the intro to _Slow
Learner_. 
is the inclusion of "out on the road" in the listing of places where Slothrop
will hear the Displaced Person's song a nod to the Kerouac novel?
--

sorry if those seem lame. will try to think of better ones while i sleep
tonight....
--rwilson

"perhaps my brains have turned to sand" -- eno