You never did the Kenosha Kid?

[Ghetta Life]

I fully agree that the Kenosha Kid mantra is intensely related to his 
journey down the toilet.  Shit
hole is the place to find one's demon alter-ego, and Slothrop's shit-hole is 
exposed for retribution.  He knowingly offers it up in search for his harp.

The Kenosha Kid mantra seems to me to act as a way to focus on 
nothing/everything via a small portal, a small set of words to be infinitely 
explored, and this a portal to deeper understanding.

(back to) Ghetta

>From: jbor at bigpond.com
>
>Don't know that the Native American placenames theory holds as a 
>total(ising) explanation. The PISCES interrogator begins by reminding 
>Slothrop of the last session:
>
>"You recall that we were talking last time about the Negroes, in Roxbury. 
>Now we know that it's not all that comfortable for you, but do try, won't 
>you." (62 -- The interrogator, patronising, could almost be talking 
>directly to the white American reader there, eh?)
>
>And the placenames and dancenames in Slothrop's conscious pre-injection 
>riffs on the Kenosha Kid story and sentence are a mixture: Kenosha, 
>Charleston, Philadelphia, Rochester, Joliet, Charlottesville, Forest Hills, 
>Laredo (61-2 - Same with the placenames in the hallucinatory narrative that 
>follows the injection, e.g. Red River Valley, Rancho Peligroso, Newton 
>Upper Falls.)
>
>He's brought to a sudden realisation of his condescension and complicity in 
>the racial inequalities of the society by the expression on a nearby 
>woman's face, the harmonica in his pocket then become just "[a] jive 
>accessory" (62-3):
>
>"Follow? Red, the Negro shoeshine boy, waits by his dusty leather seat. The 
>Negroes all over wasted Roxbury wait. [...]" (63)

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