GR: a couple of mundane questions

Jeffrey Williams NOXSPAMjeffreyw at bway.net
Tue Aug 7 15:51:09 CDT 2001


I'm in the midst of a second read of GR, and there are a couple of glaring
spots where the narrative seems to get jerked along by the larger demands of
the novel and not by any internal motivation.

Perhaps I missed the reasons why, or am unfamiliar with something, but when
Slothrop initially stumbles across the mentions of Imipolex-G and the
'Schwartzgerat', what is it about them that gets him obsessed with tracking
it down? I know what Imipolex-G is (sort of), and I have vague notions of
what it's doing in the rocket (insulating Gottfried), but why does Slothrop
develop his obsession with hunting it down? The same with the Rocket
00000... I know Slothrop is chasing it, but I've never understood why and
how the obsession with the rocket.

Also, on a mundane level, why is Slothrop packed off to the Casino Hermann
Goering? Did I miss the why and how he was sent there?

What's missing, in movie speak, is 'What's my motivation here?'

Thanks -

Jeffrey Williams
jeffreyw at bway.net



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