GRGR(24) - Recognitions

[Seb Thirlway]

From: David Morris <fqmorris at hotmail.com>


>Nobody recognizes Slothrop when he re-boards the Annubis.  When
he sez "Hi
>again! Sorry for the intrusion," everyone he meets gives him a
blank stare.
>"I don't know you,"(530.19) is their answer.  They DO know Der
Springer...
>
>Short temporal bandwidth w/ the Annubis folk?
>Is Slothrop being shunned?


>Anybody?

(Part of a planned but unposted post on the Anubis - so this is
my take on it)

I connect this with Greta sitting in the head freaking out, much
earlier.  Slothrop stood out from the Anubis folk at that point
as well:
Even though whatever is biting Greta is and always remains
thoroughly obscure, to us and to Slothrop, in spite of what
history we do know (that pool of black mud
is a very good image of her), even though Greta goes back a long
way with the Anubis crowd, even though some if not all of them
were in some way complicit in making her the mess she is by now -
when she freaks out it's good ole' Tyrone who has to go in there
and sort it out.
Being on his way to being a Fool, and unaware of the first and
foremost rule of the Anubis: Nothing Shall Happen.  Whatever sick
stuff is going on inside her, Slothrop is the very last person
qualified to sort it out.

(Come to think of it: the explicit description we're given of
some of the other characters' quirks - remember that S&M thread a
few months ago - pales in comparison with Greta and the Anubis
folk: S&M? Coprophilia?  Somehow the open invitation TRP gives us
to come and have long, hard look at these makes them quite
innocuous - but Greta's S&M history is just a pointer, or a
cause, perhaps, towards something much more disturbing which we
never see).


Still, it has to be Slothrop who goes in there.


On the Anubis it's not weird sexual practice that's disturbing -
it's the way neither Slothrop nor Morituri can even scratch the
surface of what's going on with Greta, and the way they're both
unusual in that they even notice this: everyone else on the ship
(and later, Springer) conspires to very carefully, very politely
and smoothly ignore it.

There's really sick, bad shit going on with Greta: Slothrop's
sent into the head because (although this is the last thing
they'd admit) no-one else on the Anubis can face her.  No wonder
they've blanked him out.  What happens to Slothrop in a moment
just confirms this for me.

Another BIG GUILT?

(I'll never know WHO that is with the good martial-art moves,
though I've racked my brains - as TRP meant me to - perhaps
"non-human" is the best guess I've come across)



>David Morris
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