GRGR(32) - Slothrop's Feathers

[David Morris]

(712.23)	[Even Tyrone is here at the “Kruppfest”] but only because by now – 
early Virgo – he has become one plucked albatross […] Only 
feathers…redundant or regenerable organs, “which we would be tempted to 
classify under the ‘Hydra-Phanomen’ were it not for the complete lack of 
hostility.”

http://www2.dynamite.com.au/mariner/rime.htm

"How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by storms to the cold Country 
towards the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the 
tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that 
befell; and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own 
Country."


At this point in his existence Slothrop provides an endless supply of 
Albatross feathers to the world.  The albatross in the poem is a benign 
creature whose senseless killing by the mariner signifies the inner 
depravity of the man, and thus the dead albatross tied around his neck is 
his mark of shame and sign of his preterite status.  The branch office 
maintained by the Man in each of our brains with its albatross emblem is 
also a reminder of our venal nature: As bad as we know he is, we still want 
to BE the Man (or at least be kept as his comfortable house-pet) , and he’s 
going to remind us of it with that logo.  The sacrifice of Slothrop in the 
Zone is likewise an evil act upon a benign innocent, and the resultant 
feathers might also be seen as a similar indictment of the World as it is.

Slothrop, though, is _Their_ Albatross, _Their_ sin, and as such his 
feathers might be Our emblem.  Dumbo’s feather will soon be referenced, a 
talisman that Pig Bodine offers to Slothrop to help him hold on, continue 
his discreet existence.  The feathers that Slothrop produces for us are not 
_our_ indictment (complete lack of hostility) but our talisman: 
Dumbo-Feathers for all of the Counterforce!

You can fly!

David Morris

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