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

[John Carvill]

Obviously there's a lot to be said about the opening section of the book. This is one of the reasons I thought it would have been best to set a start date for the reading, and maybe even post some points for discussion, to give the process some degree of coherence, and the participants the opportunity to gather their thoughts. Anyway........

One of the aspects that interests me is to what extent we're supposed to be looking out for themes, symbols, clues, etc. This is particularly the case if we're re-reading the book, because this adds the possibility/responsibility  of looking for forward references. 

On one hand, we know there are, to say the least, a number of recurring motifs. On the other, there's a danger that we will get too caught up in this process, take it too far, see symbolic resonances that aren't 'there' at all.  

An example: "Pirate in the lavatory stands pissing, without a thought in his head." So, we'll all have a mental picture of this scene. I see him standing in a wooden outhouse, and of course this might well be just me, but I picture a parabola of piss, and I wonder about arcs, archways, rainbows, etc. 

Another: the question of how many alternative meanings to ascribe to 'evacuation'. *Is* it Pynchon's intention to load that word with multiple meanings here? How can we ever know this?  It didn't occur to me personally to think of evacuation in the bowel-emptying sense, but as soon as it was mentioned I couldn't help thinking of the piece of 'theatre' surrounding Katje's evacuation of her bowels for Pudding's dinner.

Cheers

JC


________________________________________
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf Of Erik T. Burns
Sent: 26 October 2005 09:45
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: GR P1 S1: "The Evacuation still proceeds..." 

rob wrote:
 
>despite the prevalence of shit and so 
>forth elsewhere in the text, I don't think the sense of "evacuation" as 
>in evacuating one's bowels has any relevance for this scene
 
yer kidding, right? 
 
these first paragraphs novel set out the major themes/images: the rocket, the inevitability of endless repetition, and evacuation, in all its senses. then the elect/preterite split as noted (vips v. derelicts).
 
i might even go out on a limb and claim that there is a direct offset between the dense dream/vision of The Evacuation and Pirate's actual morning ablutions:
 
"Pirate in the lavatory stands pissing, without a thought in his head." (GR p.6)
 
TRP has set something up here that lasts through the novel: shit, in its link to fertility and death, is elect.
 
etb
 
 
 
 

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