GR 'Streets'

[jbor]

on 18/4/03 6:22 AM, David Morris at fqmorris at yahoo.com wrote:

>>> 3.  WE understand, without it ever being spelled out, what the headline
>>> says and what the picture is of, but Slothrop sees every thing in the world
>>> other than what it is.
>> 
>> No, he only makes connections to a "genital onset", which is an inversion (if
>> not a perversion) of the "rainbow cock" he sees on p. 626, to the
>> "hey-lookit-me smugness" of the Cross, and to "a Tree."
> 
> But to attribute such cuteness belies your suggestion that he is devastated by
> the image and headline.

I don't attribute it as cuteness. The connections, whether made by Slothrop
or the text, do have specific significance. The "genital onset" equates to
America "fucking over" the enemy, to phallocentrism and phallogocentrism. It
is opposed to the "stout rainbow cock" Slothrop saw earlier, which is
associated with fertility and natural harmony. In this context it has
brought death, not life. Its connection to "the hey-lookit-me smugness of
the Cross" brings in all that Christian baggage, the implicit justification
that it's OK to obliterate a "godless" enemy in the name of "God". Jesus
died for *our* Sins so's we can do whatever we want to them heathen Nips -
that attitude. Etc.

My reading is that his mind wanders to these things because he's in shock at
seeing the news. Why would he even have paid any attention to the scrap of
newspaper and be sitting there studying it like that for so long if he
didn't understand?

best