Bianca

[Ray Easton]

Monte,

On Thursday, Nov 9, 2006, at 16:19 US/Central, Monte Davis wrote:

> Ummm... First, the word "control" doesn't appear in my post.

Yes, I knew that.  The word did appear in other postings in the thread, 
and I'll admit to deliberately confusing things a little here -- partly 
because it was not entirely clear to me what position you were taking, 
mostly because it seemed more fun to respond to an intelligent post 
with some meat on it.

I agree with most everything you say here.  But I would like to make a 
couple of observations and draw a distinction.

> OK, in the case of Bianca I'd illustrate that with:
>
> 1) "He knows he’s vulnerable, more than he should be, to pretty little
> girls... [description of Bianca] . . . help, help. Why do these things 
> have
> to keep coming down on him? He can see the obit now in Time magazine— 
> Died,
> Rocketman, pushing 30, in the Zone, of lust." (463)
>
> Slothrop as victim -- not a chance against Bianca's erotic power, and 
> he'll
> die if (occasion permitting) he doesn't give in.

Must be love (it's a bitch).

> Slothrop *knows*
> he's being fed an elaborate riff on a Hollywood archetype, and he
> loves/hates it -- both saliva and vomit.

> 4)  "...red taffeta... a tiny black corset... Satin straps, adorned 
> with
> intricately pornographic needlework, run down each thigh to hold up
> stockings with tops of dark Alençon lace." (469)
>
> Another set of erotic archetypes, pushing buttons that Slothrop 
> probably
> developed closer to Harvard than to Mingeborough.
>

>  But iin the act itself. boy, is she HOT!
>

[Funny that no one has mentioned *this* before in the course of the 
thread!]

> In the sense I was driving at -- that that this genuinely erotic (and 
> yes --
> holding out my wrists for the cuffs -- genuinely hot) encounter is 
> jammed
> full of the Powers that have shaped Slothrop's arousal and Bianca's
> precocity (or corruption, take your pick)? You betcha.

> When our fondest hopes are for just the two of them, are we forcibly
> reminded that the narrow berth also contains Dr. Jamf and two 
> centuries of
> lingerie porn and Margherita's scars, Sacher-Masoch and the whole 
> production
> crew of Alpdrucken? And that at the height of their intimacy, sky-tall
> figures at the horizon are looking through the storm, right through the
> hull-plates and bulkheads of the Anubis, and checking it all off 
> against a
> plan?

Slothrup salivates like a Pavlov dog (and we with him).  Yes, They did 
the Conditioning.  A-and, yes, it is part of Their Plan.

But Bianca is neither Katje nor Ilse, the Anubis is not Zwolfkinder, 
and the figures looking through the hull-plates and bulkheads of the 
Anubis must be not altogether pleased with what they see, for surely 
this encounter is not in The Plan.  A-and, (ironic tone aside), our 
(my) fondest hopes are for the two of them, for just a moment there, 
Yes -- and that we (I) care at all, well, isn't that remarkable? -- and 
surely that caring is not part of Their Plan either.

One last observation (only loosely connected to the above):  it seems 
to me that the only one of Slothrup's sexual encounters to which he 
himself attaches any importance is that with Bianca.

R.