Fwd: The Kenosha Kid lives.

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

In a former millennium, I wrote in this context:

> I want to suggest a somehow stupid reading of the first two pages & the last
four lines of this episode. Maybe it helps to understand some 'formal' aspects
of this "outstanding enigma()" (Weisenburger).

The facsimile-like graphic representation of the letters with its detailed
address information, which awakens in the reader the expectation of a 'rational'
communication, stands in contrast to the limited content.

The question "Did I ever bother you, ever, for anything, in your life?" can be
observed as a 'performative self-contradiction'. By asking for an answer &
communicating affective commitment (: "Yours truly"), Slothrop, in fact, is
bothering the Kid. Same paradox with the answer: "You never did". A disproof in
itself. "Ass backwards", so to say.

Never having done the Kenosha Kid myself, I understand something like "Stop
making sense!", when I read all the different versions of this sentence: "But
you never did the 'Kenosha', kid! ...But you never did the 'Kenosha Kid'... You!
never did the Kenosha Kid (...) ... You? Never! Did the Kenosha Kid (...) ...
You never did 'the', Kenosha Kid! ... But you never did the Kenosha Kid. ... You
never did the Kenosha Kid. ... YOU, never? (...) DID the Kenosha Kid?". Seems
that only "You never did?!? The Kenosha Kid!?" was forgotten.

I think that this is some kind of mindfuck. Before we (: TP, TS & the readers)
can descend to the unconscious (- in its 'socio-anal' aspects here represented
by the toilet in Boston's Roseland Ballroom), the 'rational ego' has to be
casted out by frustating its efforts of unmistakable interpretation. The episode
"seems to come full circle" (Weisenburger). A formal hint against linear
sense-making. Round & round & round & round the interpretations go. But WE have
to go ON! We have to go DEEPER ...

Let's get real with 'ontological pluralism'!

Furthermore, the pseudo-scientific numbers in brackets - not only (1) & (5), but
also (2.1) & (3.1) - undermine the trust in the given information furthermore.
It's like Mr. P. wants to evoke the spirit of deadly scientific abstraction to
exorcise it before we go on with our trip.

In a way, the framework of this episode reminds me of the end of "Ulysses".
Before we can float with Molly Bloom's (un)conscious[ness], the conventional
expectations of novel-readers get fulfilled in a pseudo-'rational' form in
chapter 17 (- "* What parallel courses did Bloom and Stephen follow returning?
..."). & aren't the variations on "You never did the Kenosha Kid!" quite similar
to "Sinbad the Sailor and Tinbad the Tailor and Jinbad the Jailer and Whinbad
the Whaler and Ninbad the Nailer and Finbad the Failer and Binbad the Bailer and
Pinbad the Pailer and Minbad the Mailer and Hinbad the Hailer and Rinbad the
Railer and Dinbad the Kailer and Vinbad the Quailer and Linbad the Yailer and
Xinbad the Phthailer"?!  (...) <


https://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9906&msg=39052&sort=date

On 21.05.2016 11:39, Mark Kohut wrote:
>
>
> http://www.adweek.com/galleycat/gravitys-rainbow-punctuation-explored-on-twitter/116841
>
> https://twitter.com/YouNeverDidThe


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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l