GRGR(28): Putative conspiracies

[Jeremy Osner]

Let's turn our attention (or what passes for) to the final paragraphs of
"In the Zone". Clieve Mossmoon feels himself "rising" -- the cerebral
reality of Hierarchy/Counterforce is overwhelming his sense of self and
of location. (Is how I see it, anyways.) The Zone is a very physical
place -- you have paranoid worries but they're secondary. Slothrop's
transformation into a pig shows the earthiness of Zone-existance. (Maybe
in this, the Zone is like the Interzone -- I'm not sure, been a long
time since I read Naked Lunch. I just reflexively think "Burroughs" when
I see the word "fecal".)

But we're leaving the Zone, leaving the world of being for the world of
belief. I think in Gravity's Rainbow, all conspiracies are equally in
the mind of the conspirators and in the mind of the conspired against --
reality just goes on oblivious, while the competing parties claim as
victories and losses the vagaries of Fate. In this connection it is
beneficial to examine Marcus' statement, "We sent him out to destroy the
blacks" up against Tchitcherine's hope that they're "using him the same
way he think's he's using Slothrop."

Jeremy