GR 'Streets'

[jbor]

>> The fact that the destruction and carnage in Hiroshima is associated with
>> Christian imagery adds to and
>> confirms the negative attitude towards Christianity which is evident
>> throughout the section (and the novel).

on 16/4/03 9:53 AM, s~Z at keithsz at concentric.net wrote:

> That is obvious. But what does the choice of imagery say about the
> relationship between Christianity and Hiroshima? Between phallus and Cross?
> What is meant by 'Tree?'

I think that Slothrop is making the connections between the newspaper image
and these things. These are all things which have weighed heavily on his
mind (of course, the news of the A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima has left him
totally awestruck and in despair), and there are interpretative
possibilities both for why Slothrop makes the connections and why the text
has Slothrop make the connections. The "Tree" is the one that stumps
(sorry!) me too. Slothrop has lately become very alert to trees, talks to
trees, has incorporated them into a sort of personal system of nature
mysticism etc. The mushroom cloud does look a bit like the way a child would
draw a tree. Of course, it is white (bleached, unnatural etc) and really
only a travesty or pornography of a tree. I think its placement just before
the ellipsis (and just before the narrative reverts from quasi-stream of
consciousness - whether Slothrop's or a separate narrator's psyche) is
indicative of the way Slothrop's thought processes might have been working,
contemplating his own (American) Protestant heritage, his constant pursuit
of sexual gratification, through the prism of what has been done to
Hiroshima by the Americans, and he's perhaps considering and reassessing his
own newfound faith in nature schtick in this light as well. The
capitalisation of "Tree" could indicate an allegorical category, but if it
was the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden then I would imagine that it
would be "the Tree" rather than "a Tree". Perhaps a more generic "Tree of
Life" reference?

>> There's a distinct break between this paragraph and the preceding one,
>> which is where
>> the newspaper photo is described as reminding Slothrop of the Cross, a
>> "genital onset", and "a Tree".
> 
> How do you know the image reminds Slothrop of these things? Perhaps that is
> the narrative voice's POV. And what is the place of the astrology reading?
> Why is it there?

I think the narrative voice enters into Slothrop's pov and reports on what
he sees (the newspaper fragment) and thinks and does ("He doesn't remember
sitting on the curb for so long.... But he did." etc) in the second- and
third-last paragraphs (and I see no obstacle to inferring that narrative
strategy right back to the beginning of the section). I think it's
consistent (both internally to the paragraph and in the wider context of
Slothrop's personal and psychological progress as reported in the text) that
he is the one making the connections which are reported.

In contrast, the astrological reading comes from outside of Slothrop's pov.
It's a bit like the Tarot readings later on. I wouldn't go so far as to say
that the text endorses astrology and the Tarot, but these interpretations
are presented by the narrative voice in what to me seems an uncritical way.

best