GRGR (20) Part 3, Episode 13: Summary, Questions, Comments

[Michael Perez]

SUMMARY:
   There is not much that actually *happens* in this episode,
but the narration that is focused through Achtfaden is very
revealing, if also quite confusing.  We don’t find out who is
imagining this Toiletship *Rüchsichtslos* (“*Reckless*”) until
we are four pages into the section or that this imaginary
Toiletship is actually the wind tunnel used for testing the
aerodynamic properties of the Aggregat weapons at the
Elektromechanische Werke, Karlshagan (AKA the testing
station at Peenemunde).  Horst Achfaden is awaiting
interrogation by the Schwarzkommando, for whom he seems to
have some distain (“Here they come clattering down the
ladders, fast oogabooga talk he can’t even guess at, it’s a
linguistic wilderness here, and he’s afraid.” [455.13-14]).  In
the meantime, he’s having a little fantasy - we aren’t told
whether he has been drugged.
   Throughout this fantasy, he creates some fanciful anecdotes
about the toiletship - the only one in the fleet.  There are group
toilets (where card games are played), officers toilets (with a
free peep show of Gerda and her Fur Boa), toilet lawyers, and
only one red VD toilet.  He also remembers real conversations
and events from his time there.  His remembrances seem to
center on guilt.  His role in the scheme of things gets
downplayed and his weak attempts at denying his own guilty
feelings are buried in complaints of it being too “fashionable”
[454.16].  He tries to find parameters in order to calculate a
personal “non-dimensional coefficient” [452.14] to represent
his place in the postwar formula.
   Achtfaden is yet another self-important paranoid:  “With the
technical spies of three or four nations after him, he has had
the disastrous luck to’ve been picked up by the
Schwarzkommando, who for all he knows now constitute a
nation of their own.” [451.28-9]  However, to have the
Schwarzkommando be the first to get to him, he must be of
little use to the Americans, Russians, or British.  The
Schwarzkommando are asking about the Schwarzgerat. 
Achtfaden at first claims to know nothing about it or  who
would know, since they were very departmentalized.  Finally,
after Andreas threatens to “Stuff him down the waste lines”
[456.18], he relents and gives them a name:  Klaus Närrisch. 
Achtfaden now has nowhere to go and no one to carry him off
to another place.

QUESTIONS:
1.  Why a toiletship?
2.  Are the Schwarzkommando still roaming about without
notice for Their benefit, in order to use those zealous enough to
find pieces of information They would only have to have
(order, pay, whatever) somebody else find?
3.  Would Achfaden be worth something to any of the future
Cold War antagonists?
4.  Is he destined to become part of the preterite workforce?

COMMENTS:
   This episode has parallels with both the Slothrop toilet
episode and Pökler’s tale, that we’ve just finished.  The
likeness to the Slothrop episode is fairly obvious, but also
because of the “only one” refrain.  The similarities with
Pökler’s tale may not be as obvious, but are very important, I
believe.
   Both were involved with the development of the rocket, both
are self-important paranoids, both are in the midst of rewriting
there personal histories, and both have guilt about which they
make token attempts to deny and do penance.  Of course,
Achfaden seems to be the less important of the two, but his
part in the early development of the project cannot be
overlooked as capable of producing a generous helping of
guilt, despite his remembrance of Fahringer’s indictment of the
British and Americans for causing their share of deaths.  In
another week or so, the rocket as it is as a weapon at the end of
the European war will be overshadowed by the revelation of a
more awesome weapon, but the rocket will have its use when
They put the two together.


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