BtZ42 Section 9 (pp 53-60): before the war

[Monte Davis]

pp. 58-60

The broadcast "Frank Bridge Variations a hairbrush for the tangled brain"
-- creating smooth, traceable contours like the waves of cortical activity
Pointsman envisions in his mosaic of off/on cells?

Mark K has noted Jessica's prevision of children and domesticity. It's
followed by one more memory of an earlier moment with Roger, and the nested
reflections pile up: that conversation was itself a comparison of their
pre-war memories, five or more years back. We might have a memory, too:

"Once upon a time Slothrop cared. No kidding. He thinks he did, anyway. A
lot of stuff prior to 1944 is getting blurry now. He can remember the first
Blitz only as a long spell of good luck..." (21.6)

There's a measure of realism, simple truth to experience, here. The war has
been a rush of vivid, intense experience, with your whole environment
telling you you're part of a great world-shaping narrative, so of course
what came before is foreshortened into an old scrapbook, and you can't
quite remember what mattered about the things that mattered then.

Is there more, though? Is it only the effect of the war on the personal
narratives of  Jessica and Roger (and Slothrop) and a billion others? Is
Pynchon laying the groundwork for a larger claim to come: that something
was changing in the relationship of history and memory? Even if it has
happened before, is there anything to compare it to now?

The question hangs as "the entire fabric of the air, the time, is
changed..." There's a train (as there has been, as there will be), there
are dogs (ditto), and there's a question whether lust or even love will be
enough.

Thanks for your attention. Take it away, Janos!
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