GRGR(34) - New Dope

[David Morris]

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(745.28) a brand new kind of dope that nobody's ever heard of.  One of the 
most annoying characteristics of the shit is that the minute you take it you 
are rendered incapable of ever telling anybody what it's like, or worse, 
where to get any. [...] It's the dope that finds _you_, apparently.
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Poolside this last weekend I read this passage to my wife.  I thought she 
might like the film-under-the-rug bit (she's endured many of these short 
readings from GR).  She responded, "It [New Dope] sounds like death."  I've 
got a smart woman (and she knows it).  Nobody who's taken (been found by) 
this drug is able to tell the tale of its trip....

Remember the Loonies on Leave?  They were selling  New Dope:  "Lightning 
Latch, The Door that _Opens You!_" (260.10)  The next night he's offered 
some other "New Dope," LSD, by the same dude who later delivers the file on 
Lazlo Jamf. --- We next encounter Slothrop "In the Zone," having read Jamf's 
dossier.  New Dope indeed!

Slothrop's been _geographically_ "In the Zone" since his departure from the 
Casino H.G.  But in Jamf's crypt he's ingested Jamf's "New Dope."  This 
informational confrontation is coupled with another "confrontation," and 
both are "his own tests," which he miraculously passes.  Slothrop has a 
miraculous way with passages and thresholds.  He may later "wish he hadn't 
hadn't read anything of" his New Dope.  It is the revelation of his father's 
betrayal which Hume calls an "illuminating disillusionment." (p.111)  Say 
hello to "Pernicious Pop!"  But remember, Slothrop PASSES this test in 
Jamf's crypt, finally a test he has set for HIMSELF!

Is this passage "death?"  Maybe so, and if so, may your death be so joyful!  
Amen!

David Morris


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