GRGR (17): german samples

[David Morris]

Thank you Kai for this wonderful post, snipped here to this:

>   "säure" (365)- "acid". weisenburger adds "(as in vinegar)" & goes on: 
>"thus
>   emil is an 'acid bummer', american sixties slang for an unpleasant 
>experience
>   while under the influence of lsd." isn't this characerization a little
>   unfair?! true, he never really stops thinking about business. but in 
>general
>   emil bummer is one of the more likeable characters in this novel, no?

I don't see Emil Bummer as a bad guy, but this "bad trip" interpretation of 
his name seems pretty obvious, and hard to find an alternative.  We know 
Emil is not the most scrupulousy honest dealer...

Emil does send "'raketemensch!' [screams säure]" on a trip (not a bad one 
though, is it?).  He also gives Slothrop his new name/identity, although it 
really seems to be in everyone's mind simultaneously.  This new identity 
comes in that "pregnant moment" when everyone is blitzed on wacky weed:

----------
(366.5)  "Haven't you ever noticed, when you're this Blitzed and you want 
somebody to show up, they always do?"
    The girls are moving the coal of the reefer about, watching its 
reflection in the shiny helmet changing shapes, depths, grades of color... 
hmm.  It occurs to Slothrop here that without those horns on it, why this 
helmet would look just like the nose assembly of the Rocket.  And if he 
could find a few triangular scraps of leather, find a way to sew them on to 
Tchitcherines boots... yeah, a-and on the back of the cape put a big, 
scarlet, capital R-- Its as pregnant a moment as when Tonto, after the 
legendary ambush, attempts to --
    "Raketemensch!" screams Säure [...] Names by themselves may be empty, 
but the _act of naming_... [follows the pattern]
----------

All this happens inside the root shelter amid the earthy smells.  Roots have 
a magic power in GR.  Bummer's weed opened everyone up to recieve this 
identity in this magic place...

David Morris
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