The lengthy descriptions of Slothrop in the pig costume and later Osbie Feel's tattoo (page 651) reminded me of the discussion we had about animals and colonialism on Jan. 31st in class, where Herreros, then the Europeans are animals...
I went back and looked at the text on page 322 to see which animals are referenced, if any. It reads:
"...Oh, no. Colonies are much, much more. Colonies are the outhouses of the European soul, where a fellow can let his pants down and relax, enjoy the smell of his own shit. Where can he fall on his slender prey roaring as loud as he feels like, and guzzle her blood with open joy. Eh? Where he can just WALLOW AND RUT and let himself go in a softness..." (caps mine).
While the first bit evokes a more savage and predatory species, the last bit definitely uses two words very associated with pigs.
I don't know what to make of all these porcine references, so I'm just throwing it out there with the assumption that Pynchon wouldn't make all them by accident. I don't have the companion- does it discuss this in there at all?
Slothrop as a pig, well....I'd been thinking about that for a while...so I'm glad that Pynchon actually had it in the book.
it's an irony that being a pig for a while actually saves him from castration. Muffage & Co. think they have the right guy. Because of the costume he gets away. If Pynchon's take on Slothrop is a commentary on Americans, then America is really good at avoiding responsibility.
I think it is very funny that not only does Slothrop don a pig costume, it is a hideous, flamboyant pig costume. It is velvet, and appears to have many different colors displayed across it. Well, at least the man of the ridiculous Hawaiian shirts and the ornate zoot suits was able to find a barn animal costume to suit his taste.
I think that in over 700 pages and 400 characters, he might make one or two accidental allusions to imagery in another part of the book that isn't actually supposed to be connected. I think this one was probably intentional, but I bet there are definitely some accidents in there. There are only so many allusions one has in one's mental stock to work with. He's got to repeat them sometime.