A very different but plausible take on Slothrop and Bianca

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

Is there also "a very different but plausible take" on what happens to, 
well, Gottfried?




On 11.01.2016 17:43, Mark Kohut wrote:
> very fine and I will add my two cents. Very possibly fantasy but not a
> dream. P reserves
> dreams for other stuff, I say without saying more cause I can't wait
> for correct words.
>
> A--And, if dreamed he IS OFF the moral hook, I suggest as well.
>
> On Sun, Jan 10, 2016 at 2:49 PM,<kelber at mindspring.com>  wrote:
>> Tore Rye Andersen sent me his interpretation of the sequence off-list and
>> gave the OK to post it. I find his arguments very persuasive:
>>
>> Have you considered that the whole scene with Bianca may be simply a
>> dream/fantasy by Slothrop? I believe there is some textual evidence to
>> support this theory: 1) Slothrop is prone to vivid fantasies about girls,
>> and these fantasies are often presented as 'real' - that is, the narrator
>> doesn't explicitly point out their status as fantasy (see e.g. the orgy
>> under Nordhausen on the top of p. 304). Might the scene with Bianca be yet
>> another fantasy, just more elaborate than the others? The latter part of the
>> scene certainly slides into fantasy, when Slothrop is inside his own cock -
>> which is also somehow the rocket. 2) Or might it all be a dream? The chapter
>> starts with Slothrop waking from a dream about Llandudno. Then he wakes,
>> more or less, and in the corner of his vision "he catches a flutter of red"
>> - note the uncertainty here. And then, crucially, after exchanging a few
>> comments with her (if it is really her), we get this: "Hmm. Maybe he'll go
>> back to sleep, here" (468) - and then the sex scene unfolds. I think an
>> argument can be made that he does indeed go back to sleep. At least, the
>> possibility remains open, which does give the remaining scene a somewhat
>> ambiguous status. Maybe it happened, maybe Slothrop dreamt/fantasized it
>> (which doesn't let him off the moral hook, of course). On p. 492-493 Bianca
>> once again 'visits' Slothrop as he sleeps, and once again it is not
>> specifically pointed out as a dream.
>>
>> A few additional observations: Shirley Temple is mentioned during the
>> imaginary orgy on p. 304. The next time she's mentioned is when Bianca
>> imitates Shirley Temple on p. 466, and then she's mentioned again on p. 493,
>> when Bianca 'visits' Slothrop in a dream (and his own voice suddenly sounds
>> just like Shirley Temple's). So there seems to be a pattern involving
>> Shirley Temple/fantasy/imaginary orgy/Bianca.
>>
>> Just to play the Devil's advocate with regard to my own theory, there's a
>> small detail on p. 481 that would seem to indicate that Slothrop did have
>> sex with Bianca: he apparently finds her frock "with a damp trace of his own
>> semen still at the hem" - but then again: is it really her dress, and can
>> Slothrop really recognize his own semen? And what's more, the other semen
>> stain Slothrop encounters in the novel (on p. 297, under Nordhausen) is
>> fake, planted there for the tourists.
>>
>> At any rate, I believe that the sex scene with Bianca confirms Tony Tanner's
>> point that readers of GR are never entirely sure whether they are in a
>> bombed-out building or a bombed-out mind. Is the baby smiling, or is it just
>> gas? Which do you want it to be?
>>
>>
>> [ and another bit of evidence for Tore's theory - the sequence (Penguin, p.
>> 427-8) where Pokler has a sudden fantasy about having sex with his young
>> daughter. This goes on for a long paragraph, but concludes with: "No. What
>> Pokler did was choose to believe … " etc.]
>>
>> Laura
>>
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