what was the meaning of the "Floundering Four" chapter?
>meaning
in what way? slothrop's mind having fractured he runs through some kind of bizzare comic book scenario parodying the fantastic four
if you want some literality to it, the 'hour' he's looking for may or may not be the discharge papers from gerhardt von goll
but 'meaning?' hmmm
if nothing else it's worth the note that slothrop's ancestors had spiritual deaths in which they saw god's hand reach out towards them in their darkest moments
slothrop, child of the modern waste land finds his darkest hour filtered through a lens of cradling pop culture imagery
>>7523621
so who are the other three characters supposed to be? Marcel, Myrtle, Maximilian, are they supposed to represent characters from the book? Or are they just separate incarnations of Slothrop?
>>7525156
They're what Tyrone defines himself against: woman, negro, technology, all things he's not.
>>7525325
interesting point
three things to surrender oneself to, when considering negro equates to death in the mind of this book's white characters
>>7525703
It rather equates to shit, no? And that to entropy...
Funny that you've made this thread, this one always pops up in my mind when it comes to chapters I haven't really seen a clear big-picture "point" in other than their being fun.
>>7526510
i didnt make it
shit equates to death though, like with the brigadier's memories of death in ww1 and his sense of survivor's guilt being satiated by eating shit
Several more questions, also just read this
>why did Blicero load Gottfried into the rocket? I know the thematic thing to it, but did Blicero have a real plot driving reason to doing that
>what was the significane of the Crouchfield/Crutchfield chapter earlier in the book?
>why was Slothrop talking to the Argentine anarchists on the antenna?
>why was Miklos Thanatz even in the plot?
>was there any real ending to the Franz/Leni/Peter story? Was there some meaning to any of that?
>What was the "plot" (the one unfolding with Blodgett Waxwing and friends starting at Raoul's party)?
>why did Blicero load Gottfried into the rocket? I know the thematic thing to it, but did Blicero have a real plot driving reason to doing that
because Blicero knows as much as you do. there's little division between the thematic and more traditionally diagetic ones in this book
>what was the significane of the Crouchfield/Crutchfield chapter earlier in the book?
slothrop under sodium amytal, dingus
>why was Slothrop talking to the Argentine anarchists on the antenna?
your guess is as good as mine .. or slothrop's. I'd say these fragments of a narrative at the end are just to show that slothrop's wanderings went on long after the reader (or slothrop) could make any long-term sense of them
>why was Miklos Thanatz even in the plot?
what kind of question is this? well ... he provided info on the 00000 and blicero's heath did he not? why was anyone in this plot? why read books?
>was there any real ending to the Franz/Leni/Peter story?
which "story"? these were characters involved in many stories
>Was there some meaning to any of that?
'yes'
>What was the "plot" (the one unfolding with Blodgett Waxwing and friends starting at Raoul's party)?
just a gag. an intentionally absurd bit of black marketing whose questions (so who has this tank? is the deal still on?) are answered comically when tamara shows up in the tank firing into the crowd
>>7526993
whoops
>traditionally diagetic [elements] in this book
>>7526993
Just one more q
>what was the purpose of firing ANOTHER rocket? Why was the 00001 necessary?
>>7527008
>what was the purpose of firing ANOTHER rocket? Why was the 00001 necessary?
to undo the 00000, no? the 00001 is not ANOTHER its the first of its type, a counterforce rocket. is it even going to be fired? probably not, but it was a dream behind which to rally enzian's drifting, suicidal people. it gave the schwarzkommando a reason for existing in the zone, to "dialectically oppose" the rocket cartel and the 00000
symbolically i think it is a rocket of life, maybe a retreading of the rockets pokler was first drawn to before becoming weapons of war
