GRGR(28): Leaving the Zone

[Jeremy Osner]

What does it mean, that we are now finished with "In the Zone"? This
section has seemed to me, in some ways, the "meat" of the book; it is
the longest part and has a story-line that's fairly easy to follow. Plus
as I have repeated ad nauseam I haven't yet understood part 4. The last
"event" of part 3 I think is the castration of Major Marvy; note that we
first met MM back on p. 287, and he's been a constant presence as we've
made our way through the Zone.

What does it mean, that location of the last scene in the Zone is the
Lueneburg Heath? The Heath was first mentioned, I think, on p. 388, as a
destination for the Argentines, where they would meet von Goell. It has
been mentioned several times since then, in different contexts; I am a
bit puzzled about what brought Tchitcherine there. On p. 612 steht,
"Weissman's battery couldn't be traced any further than the heath." But
I don't remember seeing anything that would have placed it there; did we
have access to Tchitcherine's evidence?

The end of the section, with Mossmoon and Marcus, seems to me like the
end of the book if it were a traditional novel. "What?" asks RMN (and
this can be read, I think, as the reader coming up for air, wondering
what's going on); in the background we hear Michael Palin: "And now for
something completely different..."