You never did the Kenosha Kid?

[jbor at bigpond.com]

Thanks for the clarification. In the case you mention the drug was 
being used as a local anaesthetic but it had the side effect of making 
you spill your guts (and don't you just hate it when dentists ask you a 
question when they've got your mouth crammed full of cotton wool and 
cold shiny pointy things.) But in the episode in GR I think the doctors 
are actually using it solely for the latter purpose.

It seems that it has something to do with the dosage as well, as a 
couple of other people have mentioned. Pynchon is very precise about 
that aspect also: "20% Sodium Amytal, one cc at a time, as needed." (p. 
61) I read this to say that the doctors will keep on pumping in the 
serum in very small, measured amounts until it has gotten him to the 
point where he is at his most ... accommodating? ... suggestible? Note 
also that there is a time delay between when he is injected (Variation 
4 on p. 61) and when they start asking him questions (p. 62).

I think that now we've worked out what is going at the start of the 
scene (and I'm going to stick to my guns on the point about Slothrop 
deliberately resisting the experiment by fixating on, or immersing his 
mind in, a fictional scenario and related linguistic complications), it 
might be worthwhile having another look at the actual 
hallucination/confession which emerges (pp. 62-71). If the beginning of 
the scene is a representation of what is going on in Slothrop's mind, 
at the top of p. 62 Pynchon uses script format to indicate the start of 
a dialogue between the PISCES interrogator and Slothrop. I think from 
that point on Slothrop is talking, but I think your experience at the 
dentist, when you were speaking but had little if any control over what 
you were saying, and no memory of having said anything, is precisely 
what Pynchon is representing in the remainder of the episode.

best

On 03/09/2005, at 2:36 AM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

> 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.
>
>
>