On another note: Slothrop and the Rockets

[MalignD at aol.com]

On another note entirely--

I think easily the most vexing and dissatisfying aspect of GR is Pynchon's 
denying the reader a solution to the mystery of Slothrop's erections, their 
relation to the rockets, and, later, of Slothrop's disappearance.  The 
"solutions" generally given are on the level of the textual and metaphorical; 
and I have no argument with them.  Further, as we all know, there are 
warnings throughout the novel that there will be no final twining together, 
that the raveling of the plot is in keeping with the entropic themes, etc.  
Nevertheless, I feel certain I am not the only reader who, at the level of 
story, has felt cheated, and wondered whether there indeed was an explanation 
buried somewhere within the book.  In fact, I believe there is.  I say 
upfront that this explanation is dismissable as crackpot, but it is for me 
(and perhaps for me alone), correct, and provides me the satisfaction I was 
previously without.  I offer it here.

Slothrop, as Baby Tyrone, was conditioned by Laszlo Jamf with the mystery 
stimulus, "Stimulus X."  Stimulus X is undoubtedly Imipolex G, and we are led 
to assume the stimulus was the polymer's aroma (although I think this a red 
herring).  About Slothrop, the narrator says: "... he knows that what's 
haunting him now will prove to be the smell of Imipolex G." (p. 286)  

That it would have been suitable and efficacious is underscored by Greta 
Erdmann, who says, "Nothing I ever wore, before or since, aroused me quite as 
much as Imipolex."   

But what does that tell us?  Isn't Blicero's Rocket 00000 the only one 
carrying the Imipolex shroud?  And, even if not, is it believable that 
Slothrop could smell Imipolex G in a rocket four and one-half days on average 
(p. 86) before it is launched?  And what, in any case, would that explain 
about his erections and predicting the rocketfall?

Well, Rocket 00000 may not have been the only rocket carrying Imipolex G.  
Franz Pokler, worked "... in the Materials office expediting the procurement 
of various plastics for insulation, shock absorption, gasketry ..." (p. 424), 
about which, more later.  

Secondly, although Slothrop recognized the smell of Imipolex, it doesn't 
necessarily follow that it is precisely the smell that was used as the 
stimulus when he was an infant.  Consider: 

 "SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF IMIPOLEX G

Imipolex G is the first plastic that is actually erectile.  Under suitable 
stimuli, the chains grow cross-links, which stiffen the molecule and increase 
intermolecular attraction so that this Peculiar Polymer runs far outside the 
known phase diagrams, from limp rubbery amorphous to amazing perfect 
tesselation, hardness, brilliant transparency ...

"Evidently the stimulus would have had to be electronic.  Alternatives for 
signaling to  the plastic surface were limited: ...

"(b) a beam scanning system--or several--analogous to the well-known video 
electron stream, modulated with grids and deflection plates located as needed 
on the Surface (or even below the outer layer of Imipolex, down at the 
interface with What lies just beneath:  with What has been inserted or What 
has actually grown itself a skin of Imipolex G ..." (pp. 699-700)

Say what?

Back at page 251:  "There is even more being zeroed in on him [Slothrop] from 
out there than he'd thought ... Imipolex G shows up on a mysterious 
'insulation device' on a rocket being fired with the help of a transmitter on 
the roof of the headquarters of Dutch Shell, [again, see re Pokler on 424] 
who is co-licensee for marketing the Imipolex--a rocket whose propulsion 
system bears an uncanny resemblance to one developed by British Shell at 
around the same time . . ."

And as is said about another rocket (on page 517):  

"...--yes, radio signals from the ground would enter the Rocket body, and by 
reflex--literally by electric signal traveling a reflex arc--the control 
surfaces twitch ..."

And this:

"HEART-TO-HEART, MAN-TO-MAN

–Son, been wondering about this, ah 'screwing in' you kids are doing.  This 
matter of the, shooting electricity into head, ha-ha?

–Waves, Pop.  Not just raw electricity."   

—Yes, ah, waves.  "Keying waves, right?"  (p. 698)

So, consider:  

If Jamf had surgically implanted Imipolex G into Baby Slothrop's penis, and 
if, perhaps thereafter, Slothrop's penis has "grown itself a skin of Imipolex 
G," his erections could be the result of radio signals beamed from the Royal 
Dutch Shell transmitter  ["...  the stimulus would have had to be 
electronic."]   

If one considers Gwenhidwy's paranoia (that the rockets are falling "... out 
here, you see.  Not back on Whitehall, where it's supposed to be ..." (p. 
171)  and British Shell's interests, one can speculate that Slothrop's penis 
was used as a sort of rangefinder, specifically and purposefully signaled, 
resulting in his erections, and thus the ongoing interest in Slothrop from so 
many quarters.  (Consider also that even Pointsman's theories about Slothrop 
pass from the psychological to the physical, as he has Muffage and Spontoon 
sent into the Zone to retrieve Slothrop's testicles.)

Further musings:  

On page 439, Slothrop's "nose actually seems to be erecting ... a nasal 
hardon here ..."  

Page 470:  "... but later on, it will occur to him that he was--this may 
sound odd, but he was somehow, actually, well, inside his own cock. ... his 
arms and legs it seems woven among vessels and ducts ... Everything is about 
to come, come incredibly, and he's helpless here in this exploding emprise . 
. . red flesh echoing . . . an extraordinary sense of waiting to rise. . . ."

What is happening to him?  

Page 699:  "SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF IMIPOLEX G ... "Under suitable stimuli, 
the chains grow cross-links, which stiffen the molecule and increase 
intermolecular attraction. ... It is entangled with the bones and ducts, its 
own shape determined by how the Erection of the Plastic shall proceed ..."

Slothrop, I believe, is slowly turning into Imipolex G.  

And as the plastic "[entangles] with [his] bones and ducts," he is bleached 
out, like Blicero, into the polymer's "brilliant transparency." 

Slothrop's disappearance is, then, not merely metaphorical: it is actual.

So I think.