NP: Gravity's Rainbow re-read

[Paul Mackin]

On Mar 19, 2006, at 5:36 PM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

> The question is, why is this issue cropping up in Slothrop's dream/ 
> hallucination?  One possibility, Slothrop is both the many, the  
> preterite being controlled and manipulated by "Them," and, at the  
> same time, he's the One, the chosen first by Jamf, then by  
> Pointsman, the "one, little, fox" Pointsman wants.

Slothrop is in the clutches of a bunch of zany stimulus-response  
behaviorists. He needs a competing view of reality to fortify himself  
with. The  Suprasensible world of Plato seems like a promising refuge.

What would be Ideal (excuse the expression) would be a  place where  
there is no Slothrop  to mess with  but only Slothropness.  Only  
Westwardmanness and Pardness.

He can't quite get there. There remains one material representative  
of every idea  including one Slothrop.

Something like that .


P.

>
> p.70
> "Look on it as an optimization problem.  The country can best  
> support only one of each.
>
> ...
>
> Q. Well are the real ones necessary? or unnecessary?
> A.  It depends on what you have in mind.
> Q. Shit, I don't have anything in mind.
> A. We (italics) do. "
>
>
> Again, in his unconscious state, Slothrop is connecting with  
> Pointsman and understanding what he doesn't yet realize when he's  
> awake: this IS about him.
>
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net>
>> Sent: Mar 18, 2006 5:17 PM
>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Subject: Re: NP: Gravity's Rainbow re-read
>>
>>
>> It's a comical riff on the ancient philosophical quest for Unity in
>> an infinitely diverse reality.  It's called the problem of the one
>> and the many.
>>
>> Slothrop (Pynchon) doesn't succeed in finding a complete oneness, but
>> only a oneness of each kind of thing.
>>
>>
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Glenn Scheper <glenn_scheper at earthlink.net>
>> Sent: Mar 18, 2006 4:04 PM
>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Subject: Re: Gravity's Rainbow re-read
>>
>> I figured the "only one" of each thing inveigled Plato's forms:
>> http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/platform.htm
>> Plato's Theory of Forms
>> It is the material world, perceived through the senses, that is  
>> changing.
>> It is the realm of forms, perceived through the mind, that is  
>> permanent and
>> immutable.
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: <kelber at mindspring.com>
>> To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2006 12:41 PM
>> Subject: NP: Gravity's Rainbow re-read
>>
>>
>>> I'm on my first re-read of GR, and made a connection I hadn't  
>>> made on the
>>> first go-round: In the Kenosha Kid sequence,  Crutchfield the  
>>> Westwardman
>>> [sending his rockets westward?] and his Pard, Whappo, Afro- 
>>> Scandinavian
>>> are Slothrop's precognition of Weissmann and Enzian/Gottfried.   
>>> Not sure
>>> what "the only one"  means in this context.  "Only one fight, one  
>>> victory,
>>> one loss."  Anyone have any insights into this, or know of any good
>>> articles or essays that discuss this part of the KK seaquence?
>>>
>>> Laura