GRGR(24), yo

[one million billionth of a millisecond on a sunday morning]

Welcome to GRGR(24), pp. 700-717 in the Penguin Classics edition.

Plot summary courtesy of...

http://www.williams.edu:803/Individuals/mbell/RAINBOW.HTM

   [7], 700-706. Tchitcherine is alone now; Soviet intelligence officer,
   Nicolai (yes) Ripov, is closing in. Tchitcherine remembers what Wimpe
   (see, for instance, 3: [5], above) once said to him: "Marxist
   dialectic s? That's not an opiate, eh?" (701) The peculiarity of
   Oneirine: "Pökler's singularity" (702)--a "haunting," dull and
   difficult to distinguish from reality, but leading to "the discovery
   that everything is connected" (703). Then comes "Tchitcherine's
   Haunting," an interrogation by Ripov. "Why were you hunting your black
   brother?" "I thought," Tchitcherine replies, "I was being punished.
   Passed over. I blamed him." (705) He then learns his future from
   Ripov: a 30-days' leave, then back to Russia, then to Central Asia
   with captured German rocket personnel.

   [8], 706-717. The Gross Suckling Conference (named after the inn where
   it was held): Ensign Morituri (see 3: [16], above), Carroll Eventyr
   (see 1: [5] and [18] above), Thomas Gwenhidwy (see 1: [20], above),
   and Roger Mexico. They deduce the firing direction of the 00000
   rocket--true north; but where was it fired from? Roger recalls
   (another flashback shifting into present tense) Jessica telling him,
   in Cuxhaven, of her decision to marry Jeremy. Jeremy, at lunch,
   invites him to dinner, at the home of a former Krupp manager, Stefan
   Utgarthaloki. Roger brings along Seaman Bodine, who's wearing an
   extraordinary zoot suit (cf. 2: [6]), above?). Arriving, they notice
   four musicians--including Gustav and Anton (see 3: [12],
   above)--scheduled to play Haydn's suppressed "Kazoo" quartet (711-12).
   Slothrop, we learn, "has become one plucked albatross. Plucked,
   hell--stripped. Scattered, all over the Zone. It's doubtful if he can
   ever be 'found' again, in the conventional sense of 'positively
   identified and detained.'" (712) We learn about the Counterforce's
   abiding awe of "the man"--who "has a branch office in each of our
   brains." (712) At table, seeing a huge barbecue pit at the end of the
   dining room, and realizing that they themselves are to be the
   "Überrashungbraten" ("surprise roast"), Roger and Bodine proceed to
   gross out the other guests by inventing disgusting, alliterative menu
   entries (e.g., "menstrual marmalade," "clot casserole"). "Commando
   Connie" Flamp, war correspondent, joins the game ("discharge
   dumplings"), as do the musicians ("wart waffles," "puke pancakes, with
   sweat syrup"). The others begin to vomit uncontrollably. Jessica
   leaves with Jeremy. "Does Roger have a second of pain right here? Yes.
   Sure. You would too." (716) Then Bodine and Roger, followed by the
   musicians, escape--as Connie continues the game alone.


Josh

-- 
josh blog: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~kortbein/blog/
      tdr: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~kortbein/tdr/