GR translation: two wartime pros used to field expediency

[Michael Lee Bailey]

Exactly: Muffage’s highly placed brother has kept him away from the front lines, as did Spontoon’s Ace-of-Spades birthmark and migraines.

Slothrop’s doffed the pig suit to cavort with Bodine’s masseuse friend Solange; Major Marvy dons it to avoid being caught with cocaine - couldn’t happen to a nicer guy….

Their faux-efficiency isn’t from operating in wartime hospitals at all, but from performing (Muffage performing - but not since 1927; Spontoon only ever assisting) castrations prewar in mental hospitals

Google AI mentions the practice -

“Without legal authority: The UK did not pass eugenics sterilization legislation as was common in some US states and Scandinavian countries. However, some sterilizations, including castrations, were carried out on individuals in institutions for eugenic reasons, albeit without legal sanction.

- “Medical justification:AProspect Magazinearticle notes that a British doctor was known to have castrated three young men for "eugenic means" sometime around or before 1927. The Ministry of Health reportedly told the doctor not to do it again, but no further action was documented.
- “Other sterilizations:In the late 1920s, some doctors in London were performing "sterilizations of convenience," sometimes using the "Steinach operation"—a vasectomy-like procedure—and justifying it under questionable scientific claims.”

On Thu, Aug 28, 2025 at 8:45 AM, Mike Jing <[gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com](mailto:On Thu, Aug 28, 2025 at 8:45 AM, Mike Jing <<a href=)> wrote:

> V609.14-19, P620.6-11 Both men have scrubbed, and donned masks and rubber
> gloves. Muffage has switched on a dome light which stares down, a soft
> radiant eye. The two work quickly, in silence, two wartime pros used to
> field expediency, with only an occasional word from the patient, a whisper,
> a white pathetic grope in his ether-darkness after the receding point of
> light that’s all he has left of himself.
>
> This must be sarcasm, since both of them are civilians and avoided
> participating directly in the war, is that correct?
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l