You never did the Kenosha Kid?

[jbor at bigpond.com]

On 01/09/2005 adam wrote:

>> what exactly are slothrop's interrogators "after" (p90, haha) anyway? 
>> i doubt its really to find out why slothrop "knows" where the rockets 
>> are falling

It's explained in that section (83-92). Starts off with a conversation 
between Pointsman and Pudding about the ethics or otherwise of this 
sort of mind experiment on humans (83). Confirms that "Slothrop was 
discovered by the White Visitation in 1944" (85) and that "many there" 
know him as "Infant Tyrone" (i.e. they know about Jamf's experiments on 
Slothrop as a baby). As for Slothrop's apparent prediction of where the 
rockets will fall (the map stars correspond exactly to rocket strikes - 
pp. 85-6), Edwin Treacle thinks it's "precognition", Mexico thinks it's 
a "statistical oddity" and Rollo Groast thinks it's "psychokinesis" 
(85).

Pointsman's theory is elaborated on p. 86. He's trying to demonstrate 
that it is an "ultraparadoxical phase" in Pavlovian terms, which is why 
in the experiments at St Veronica's he's seeking to plumb the depths of 
Slothrop's mind and memories in order to discover the psychological 
root or trigger causing Slothrop's "response" (sexual encounter) to 
precede the "stimulus" (rocket strike). He's looking for precedents for 
the behaviour. The explanation he's trying to prove is that it's some 
sort of residue of the conditioning Slothrop was subjected to as a 
baby.

best

> Tchitcherine uses it again on Slothrop (390-392) as well, for much the 
> same reasons that it was used on him back at St Veronica's. And I do 
> think that back in the hospital it is a part of the broader 
> surveillance operation which has been mounted on Slothrop (i.e. Bloat 
> keeping tabs on Slothrop's star map which appears to prefigure the 
> rocket strikes, quizzing Tantivy, shadowing Slothrop) -- why not?