GRGR(9): Welcome

[David Morris]

>From: keith woodward
>
>In response to what David has said re: the quest... I have trouble looking
>at Slothrop's quest as "classic", I think in many ways it is a response to
>the classic quest and often looks more like an anti-quest.  Also, I have
>equaql trouble with saying that Slothrop is "embarking", or for that matter
>using much of any language that attributes much agency to Slothrop at this
>early point in the novel.  I don't think he's embarking, he's been embarked
>(if you take my meaning).

Yes, I agree, sort of.  The Schlemiel is not your classic hero, either, but 
that's all part of this unique permutation of the quest story.  "To embark" 
or "to have been embarked" is a significant question purposely left up in 
the air.  Could Slothrop be seen as a cross between Stencil and Benny 
Profane?

>Nonetheless, I completely agree with you re: his
>identity and his history, but there seems to be a constant thin line
>between him searching for something and him falling into something (it
>seems more often than not, he's discovering something that he didn't know
>that he was looking for, but that everyone else seems to think he should be
>looking for.)

Someone once taught me that the "classic" hero myth can be summed up in 
three lines:  Take a potion.  Journey to a dark place.  Be changed.
Inherent in this transformation is a level of loosing control, to be acted 
upon by the Gods, who are not gentle with those to whom they impart their 
wisdom/madness.

>Keith W, who sadly cannot yet grow a nice, thick, Wyatt Earp mustache

"Yet?"  How old ARE you, anyway?

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