Kenosha Kid

[jbor at bigpond.com]

One theory I recall is that the "Kenosha Kid" is a reference to Orson 
Welles, Kenosha being Orson's home town, I believe. But I never found 
the explications to be particularly persuasive.

But I do think it would be entirely apt for Slothrop to fixate on a 
pulp fiction story and hero during his ... "therapy" at St Veronica's, 
and to experience intermittent flashbacks afterwards. It's even 
possible that he's aware of what's about to happen to him (the Sodium 
Amytal interrogation) and that he's actively trying to manipulate his 
subconscious before, and while, he's slipping under, attempting to 
project himself into the story in order to subvert the experiment and 
thereby hide or protect the deeper realms of his own psyche.

_Western Rangers_ certainly seems like a 'zine serial that Slothrop 
might have been a fan of as a kid (as an adult, even), and it would be 
interesting to investigate whether there are any internal correlations 
between the story (e.g. "Crouchfield the Westwardman and his sidekick 
Whappo", Red River Valley, thematic undertones) and Slothrop's 
surrealistic dream-vision.

best

> On Fri, 2005-04-29 at 13:35 -0400, Paul Di Filippo wrote:
>>
>> Does the best TRP scholarship still find "The Kenosha Kid" to be "one
>> of the outstanding enigmas" of GR, as Weisenburger calls it?  If so,
>> consider this:  on another list I belong to, people contribute
>> table-of-contents info for old pulp zines.  here's one just given:
>>
>> From an eBay ToC scan
>>
>> Western Rangers [v3 #3, August 1931] (Popular Publications Inc., 128pp
>> +,
>> 20 cents, pulp, cover by Don Hewitt)
>>
>> 6 * The Kenosha Kid * Forbes Parkhill * nv
>> 40 * The Blood Law [Dave Chisholme] * Eli Colter * ss
>> 53 * Fiesta of Death * J. Allan Dunn * ss
>> 69 * Pussyfoot Rides Again * Paul Evan Lehman * ss
>> 84 * The Sundowners Trail * Ralph Cummins * nv
>> 105 * Rangers Die Slowly * Ruel McDaniel * ss
>> 116 * The 30-Buck Shot * Benjamin F. Ferrill * ss
>> 122 * The Rodeo * Tex Sherman * cl
>> 126 * Rangers' Roundup * Various * cl
>>
>>
>> Could TRP have merely been referencing a pulp hero all this time?
>
>