Slothrop's deconstruction, beginning on p.231 (Bantam)

[János Székely]

Imho Slothrop's deconstruction begins in St. Veronica (when he is
released, he notices that some things from his past "must be outside
his memory", p. 115), or even earlier ("A lot of stuff prior to 1944
is getting blurry now").

Janos

2009/3/14 D. Patty <revd.76 at gmail.com>:
> Okay, I'm a bit rusty on my military 'conditioning', but the fact
> that the episode starts off w/ an emphasis on Slothrop's gaudy
> attire & its (potential) relation to his success w/ women, only
> to be followed up w/ the theft of his clothes & the too-thorough
> scrubbing of his wardrobe closet a few pages later...  Strikes
> me as very similar to military indoctrination / the deconstruction
> of an enlisted 'persona', in addition to being a scientific effort at
> clarity (removing variables to better understand a given result).
>
> This would, to me, be the beginning of Slothrop's deconstruction.
> He feels the loss of Hogan's shirt "most of all..."
>
> (Full disclosure:  I'm working from the bias of my own read on
> things, that the dissolution of Slothrop's personality is in fact
> the only way for him to completely escape Their grasp, akin
> to the idea of a Completely Ascended master of meditative
> discipline disappearing; cf. Crowley's conception of Samadhi
> as being freedom from ego.  Not that Little Tyrone was ever
> that big into philosophy--  he probably figures if you're intangible
> there's nothing to hold on to.)
>
> Sorry if this is old hat, but I'm on my second-ever complete
> read of GR, companioned by a first edition of Weisenburger's,
> so if anyone has any thoughts on the subject I'd be very grateful.
>
> -David
>
> --
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>