GRGR (1): Wayward Thoughts and Forshadowings (pp. 3 - 7)

[Tim Strzechowski]

Great points, and I find myself intrigued by this particular comment Paul 
makes, because it raises the issue of narrative voice in the novel. 
"Oughtn't he to be doing something" is one of several times in which the 
narrative consciousness comes to the surface -- raising its voice, as it 
were, to the reader.

"You can't see a vapor trail 200 miles, now, can you.  Oh.  Oh, yes: around 
the curve of the earth [...]" (p. 6)

"What if it should hit _exactly_ -- ah, no -- for a split second you'd have 
to feel the very point, with the terrible mass above, strike the top of the 
skull." (p. 7)

In general, this is only in the awake-Pirate portion of the chapter, not in 
the opening dream sequence.  The only time this seems to appear in the dream 
sequence, I think, is in this line:  "No, this is not a disentanglement 
from, but a progressive _knotting_ into [...]" (p. 3).  Why the "No"?  It is 
a response to the question posed: "Is this the way out?"  Yes, as Paul says 
"representation has been problematised," and adding to that is the slippery 
nature of the narrative voice -- another aspect of the novel's complexity 
that is found encapsulated in this opening chapter.



Paul said:

[...]
>
> Each passage features a journey of sorts. The anonymous "they" of the
> dream sequence are passive: "All the evacuees are ordered out. They move
> slowly, but without resistance" (4) - the "but" here indicating no sense
> of urgency on anyone's part. Subsequently, Pirate (named and assigned
> character status) is rather more active: he wakes and sees, "leaps off
> the cot" (5) etc, has a piss and climbs to the roof garden (6). However,
> top of 7 ("Oughtn't he to be doing something ..."): faced with the need
> to act he opts to prepare breakfast, all the time "feel[ing] he's about
> to shit".
>
>