You never did the Kenosha Kid?

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Years ago, after graduating from college, I had my wisdom teeth pulled. The dentist gave me an injection of what he called "truth serum," which I assumed  to be sodium pentathol.  He gave me the injection and I asked him how long it would take and he told me it had already happened.  I thought he was kidding, until I noticed my mouth was stuffed full of bloody cotton.  There was absolutely no sensation of grogginess or falling asleep.  From my point of view it had been instantaneous.  But the dentist knew all about my career goals, concerns, etc.  Apparently I had discussed the whole thing very coherently while I was under.  I don't know whether it was prompted by questions from the dentist, or if I was just spilling my guts.  My guess is that the drug I got was similar, if not identical to what Slothrop got.  It doesn't necessarily mean that my experience of instantaneousness is typical or that Pynchon was familiar with this type of experience.

 
--Original Message-----
From: jbor at bigpond.com
Sent: Sep 1, 2005 4:59 AM
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: You never did the Kenosha Kid?

> >I'm not convinced that the point of the Sodium Amytal injection
> >is to put Slothrop to "sleep", or that that's what happens when one is
> >under the drug's influence. It's a "truth serum", isn't it? He's
> >resisting the intended effect of the drug -- that much is clear -- but
> >I don't agree that the intended effect is to put him to sleep. It's
> >pretty obviously an interrogation.
>

On 01/09/2005 adam wrote:

> there might be somthing in looking at the other uses of sodium amytal 
> in the book to help clarify its effects.

Yes. It was suggested that it was being used on Slothrop as an 
anaesthetic, which I don't think is correct. But the general point I 
agreed with was that Slothrop is actively trying to resist the usual or 
intended effect of the drug in this particular lab situation (in other 
words, its intended effect isn't to induce sleep, it's meant to 
elicit truthful responses during interrogation, deep-seated 
confessions.)

I think that von Goll is a recreational user (as also is Pointsman, if 
"amobarbital sodium" is off the same shelf -- see p. 169), and so the 
purposes and effects might be somewhat different in their contexts.
 
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?

But I think this is the clincher: 

"Each room will hold a single unpleasantness for him: a test he must 
pass. He wonders if Pointsman hasn't set these up too. Of course, of 
course, he must . . . how did the young bastard ever find out? Have I 
been talking in m' sleep? Have they been slipping in at night with 
their truth serums to--and just at the clear emergence of the thought, 
here is his first test tonight. In the first room: a hypodermic outfit 
has been left lying on a table. [...]" (231 -- Pudding's visit to Katje 
as Domina Nocturne)

Pointsman is Pudding's underling, and so the latter would certainly 
know what type of experiments Pointsman and his crew conduct.
 
Way it reads to me, the 'Kenosha Kid' variations are "occupying 
Slothrop's awareness" (i.e. keeping his mind busy) both before *and* 
after he is supposedly woken by the doctor, and both before *and* after 
he is given the Sodium Amytal injection, though he starts to lose his 
grip there at the bottom of p. 61, in the midst of Variation No. 6. The 
doctor has leaned in "to wake him" and inject the serum right in the 
middle of Variation No. 4.
 
So, a conscious attempt to resist or subvert the experiment (his 
"[f]alsifications", "distorted thought processes" and psychopathic 
defiancy, as Pointsman concludes on p. 90) is still the best bet as to 
what Slothrop is actually doing on pp. 60-1.