kids

[Terrance]

Pynchon's use of Rilke is the most twisted. 


In the end, those who were carried off early no longer need
us: they are weaned from the Earth's sorrows and joys, as
children outgrow the Mother's soft breast. But we, we who
need such great mysteries, we whom grief is so often the
source of our spirit's growth---: could we exist with out
them? 

			---DIE ERSTE ELEGIE

"Isn't it possible," Thanatz whispers, "that we all learned
that classical fantasy at Mother's knees? That somewhere
tucked in the brain's plush album is always a child in
Fauntleroy clothes, a pretty French maid begging to be
whipped?" 

Not only are children (and almost everyone else in GR,
including TS) not innocent, they all want to be victims.
Victims of sodomy, the whip, rape,  and most of the victims
are victimizers too, yes, even TS.