As I was reading the last lingering pages, I came across this passage. Yes, I must admit, I did find another ROCKET parallel!
On page 760 it reads, "The title is New Dope, and that's what it is about, a brand new kind of dope that nobody's ever heard of. One of the most annoying characteristics of the shit is that the minute you take it you are rendered incapable of ever telling anybody what it's like or worse, where to get any. Dealers are as in the dark as anybody. " I thought this passage was so interesting because it was just another rocket metaphor and, I think, a strong theme for this book.

I noticed in class that the handout talked about the parallels between Ilse and Bianca. I thought this was very interesting because I actually had difficulty telling the two different stories apart at first. For a while, I thought that Greta was Leni under a different name, and if you think it about it, that notion was not too far-fetched at the time! Besides the obvious, (that the women have young, overly mature and promiscuious daughters who have very inappropriate, intimate sex with older men with strange fantasies), there are many parallels drawn between Greta and Leni (or their daughters) in this book. Also, Greta was essentially a porn star and Leni has transformed into the prostitute "Solange". There is also that weird conception coincedence as Slothrop muses, "Ilse, fathered on Greta's silver and passive image, Bianca, conceived during the filming of the very scene that was in his thoughts as Pokler pumped in the fatal charge of sperm-- how could they not be the same child" (586)? This is an important question. Why are there these coincedences? Why were they fathered with the same image in mind? Why are they both young, sexually-charged female characters with clear father complexes? Why are the sex scenes with both of these characters so powerful to both partners? In the past, Slothrop has inseminated and then moved on. After his brief moment of passion with Bianca, he cannot get her from his mind for the rest of the reading!! Pokler, though clearly overwrought dealing with paranoia and his issues of being a parent, seems to be strangely fulfilled after his sex with his daughter. Why does Pynchon make these girls so oddly similar and so terribly captivating?

I found this biblical allusion and following commentary very interesting and am going to attempt to venture an idea about it. If anybody would like to add, correct, or completely disagree with my musings, I would appreciate it!

On page 411, "Pokler, billeted at a fisherman's cottage, came in from his evening walks behind a fine mask of salt. Lot's wife. What disaster had he dared to look back on? He knew." This passage is alluding to the God's decimation of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament. Both cities were practicing various acts of sodomy and this enraged God. Therefore, he let Lot and his family (for they weren't part of the sodoming majority) flee from the land before he destroyed it.

I have been spotting many examples of the reverse order descriptions Professor Fitzpatrick talked about since one of the first days we started reading. However, I feel like this tool of describing things backwards or in reverse order really came into play on pg 379 when Pinchot describes Germany. He talks of how "inside is outside", "but outside has been brought inside and that kind of Sunday lasts all week long", and "Earth has turned over in its sleep, and the tropics are reversed". I thought this was such a creative way of describing broken down, crumbling Germany. This figurative language is simply emphasizing the backwardness of Hitler's regime and seems to be saying, in a disheartened way, that Germany has fallen.

I find it so interesting that Slothrop's romantic fantasies and sexual desires are so intrinsically entwined with the idea of the rocket! On page the bottom of page 308 and onto 309 he entertains a sexual fantasy of girls "in tight pink lab coats reaching just to the tops of bare thighs...giggling and reaching to drape around his neck lush garlands of silvery B nuts and flange fittings, scarlet resistors, and bright yellow capacitors strung like little sausages...into an empty Stollen, where they all commence a fabulous orgy..." This is so intriging to me because it seems that often people, when engaging in monotonous daily tasks, like work, will often fantasize about something other than work.

I hate to bring up this section of the book again, since it did include some very obscene descriptions of bodily functions, but I am a bit confused about one part of it. I understand that Domina Nocturna is Katje, and that this is all some cruel set up of Pointsman's, but why? Why did Ernest Pudding have to undergo all of these tests? He clearly knew they were tests and he didn't seem surprised, but I am still foggy about it. Why did he go from cell to cell, being tested by Pointsman? Is Pointsman the mastermind? Is he the one dictating the Slothrop following and spying and basically every scheme in this book? If anyone could clear up my thinking, I would be much obliged.

Upon reading the first 150 pages of this lengthy and multi-faceted novel, I have come upon a quick realization. At first, I was a little ashamed, feeling as if I was acting frivolous and shallow, but now I see a few pertinent reasons behind my discovery. I have discovered that my favorite parts of this novel thus far are the romantic scenes, preferably the ones with Roger and Jessica. This is not because I have a soft spot for relationships and bonding or because I like to read Pynchon's rather graphic descriptions of budoir activities, but rather because I feel like these scenes are the most telling to me. They are a little easier for me to read and they are absolutely full of interesting, poignant statements and symbolism.