Fwd: The Kenosha Kid lives.

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Astute comment about those letterheads, Kai, and the numbered lists, whether meant as an overt Wittgenstein reference or not. These all make it clear that we're not dealing with free-form word association or anything poetic. This whole section seems infuriatingly (because still so enigmatic)mapped out by Pynchon. He's not flitting from conceit to conceit, but appears to be staying solidly on course, whatever that course may be.

Pointsman (devotee of cause-and-effect) seeks to tap into Slothrop's memories, expecting some sort of stammered utterances of traumatic memories. Instead, Slothrop's brain runs through a stylized, methodical list of grammatical permutations. Pointsman has tapped into the wrong part of Slothrop's subconscious, just as Pynchon, as Kai says, simultaneously diverts our attention to the prosaic and rational, when something much more symbolic is going on.

Laura


-----Original Message-----
>From: Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de>
>Sent: May 21, 2016 6:21 AM
>To: Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>, pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: Fwd: The Kenosha Kid lives.
>
>
>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
>
>
>-
>Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l

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