GR P1 S1: "The Evacuation still proceeds..."

[jbor at bigpond.com]

>> .... And, as it's a dream, it might be an episode, or an accumulation 
>> of episodes, which Pirate has submerged in his own psyche, thoughts 
>> and visions that have come into his mind previously, perhaps even 
>> recurringly, that have been very disturbing to him but which he has 
>> worked hard to bury somewhere deep in his psyche. So, not just the 
>> one episode, or one victim, but a composite ... and that's perhaps 
>> where and how the more abstract or philosophical implications for 
>> human mortality come into it as well. But I don't get an impression 
>> of guilt, or even of clear knowledge of the fate awaiting the 
>> evacuee/victims, at all.
>>
>
> It feels a bit too focused to be a composite, or if it is, Pirate's own
> personality is dominating it, if only subconsciously, and giving it
> a single vision. So perhaps the sense of guilt I'm detecting is coming
> from Pirate-

Interestingly, I had a similar sort of thought about how Pirate's 
subconscious might be inserting himself into the dream, squaring up his 
own life and work with everything he has seen and suspected in his 
mental transports thus far, working out how he fits in with all these 
different layers and levels of society and intrigue, and where his own 
true sympathies might lie (i.e. force or counterforce?) So, yes, I 
think that there is definitely a process of sorting through the 
information and implications for himself which is going on in the dream 
too. The personal dimension manifests for Pirate again not long after 
he wakes up, with the onset of a sudden fear of the point of the rocket 
landing on the top of his skull, though I wonder whether that's 
Slothrop's paranoia he's suddenly channelling there?

As to evidence about who knew what about the death camps, and when they 
knew it, I don't think there are a whole lot of definitive answers. 
Even on the German side of things, let alone amongst the Allies. I 
think it's part of the point of the novel to illustrate this fraught 
state of knowing/not knowing/trying not to know.

Rereading the simile about "half-silvered images in a view finder, 
green-stained VIP faces remembered through bulletproof windows speeding 
through the city", it occurs to me now that the view finder might be 
the sight of a gun, with Pirate (or someone) taking aim, but thwarted 
by the bulletproof glass. A lost opportunity.

best

> accompanied by the feeling of not belonging with this
> group of preterite souls, the class of which he doesn't often mingle,
> and now seems perplexed to find himself among- at this late stage.
>
>> I'm not sure how much anyone on the Allied side knew about the death 
>> camps in mid-1944 anyway so I doubt that it'd be an assignment 
>> Pirate'd have been given--plus the fact that there'd be no strategic 
>> value to be gained from it. As I understand it, knowledge about the 
>> death camps wasn't exactly flooding out anywhere, even at this late 
>> stage, particularly into the U.K. or the U.S. The few accounts there 
>> were had been either dismissed or ignored.
>>
>
> My resources (time especially) are stretched just now, but I think 
> there
> is some evidence out there that the Allies, especially within elite
> circles, were well aware of the death camps by then. Even if the
> accounts were few, those in the know would be just the people
> whose imaginations an asset like Pirate would be assigned to control.
> They would, in fact, be the leaders. "Dismissed or ignored"- precisely
> the goal of his intervention. Spookily reminiscent of events closer
> to our own times.
>
>> I think the remembered "VIP faces" speeding out of the city might 
>> have been the Elect, whose "Evacuation" and safety are always made 
>> into much more of a priority than that of the Preterite throng left 
>> behind.
>
> I know we've been round about this before, but I can't read
> that passage without getting the sense that the point of view
> being channeled is inside the speeding car, perhaps driving,
> and looking at the more elite personages in the back seat
> by glancing in the rear view mirror.
>
>>
>> I think that Pirate's morning routine, and the Banana Breakfasts he 
>> prepares (and probably the nights of drunkenness and debauchery as 
>> well), illustrate the way Pirate manages all of the conscious, waking 
>> moments when he is off-duty, taking things as they come and just 
>> focusing on the mundane activites of life and living to keep all 
>> these other presentiments and insights at bay--his way of telling 
>> "Death ...  to fuck off".
>>
>
> Will get there. Morning hasn't broken yet. There's still iron queens
> and crystal palaces to consider.
>