Paperware to Vaporware, The Nativity of Tyrone Slothrop

– 8 –

Slothrop’s Destiny was more or less already determined in infancy. His family was not prospering and his father (Schwarzvater) made a deal for his education with the NRC in the Spring of 1920 [84]. At this time the Sun, moving direct, formed an exact conjunction with retrograding Mercury – both still in the Twelfth House. The Sun represents the government, authorities in general, the father, and the vitality of the native. Mercury is also the planet of speech, education, research councils, and the transformation of an infant to a toddler. Tyrone was conditioned, observed, never really deconditioned beyond the zero and kept under surveillance for the rest of his life. Astrologically, a twelfth-house double Virgo with ruling Mercury retrograde in Virgo to boot, is the most ideal candidate for such an experiment – Thomas Pynchon most certainly must have known this!!

The Sun, Virgo Ascendant, and ruling retrograde-Mercury (the final dispositor as well, i.e., all planets refer back to Mercury) are the key significators of Tyrone’s nativity. We can now examine the holistic figure of the chart and the positions of the other planets. The chart diagram itself is amazing, unusual and tells us much about extraordinary times, freedom, the rocket, and the relation between this World and Other Worlds. The figure illustrated is known as the Bucket – all planets except one symmetrically clustered in one segment of the Zodiac and polarized by that “singleton” in the opposite sector. The singleton is also known as “the handle of the bucket,” a focal determinator indicating special talents, whims, and “gifts” according to the nature of the planet. In Slothrop’s chart we are dealing with Uranus in the Sixth House, retrograde in its own sign of Aquarius – a most prominent factor indeed!

Uranus is the planet of innovation, originality, technical advancements (rockets, computers), revolutions, freedom, chaos, extraordinary times, eccentric persons and, yes, also of paranoia, “genius and madness.” It stands at the first gate to the outer world: self-liberation, the breakthrough. Its physical state, element, is electricity and its symbol is vertical lightning (in the USA, GB, and most English speaking countries the anachronistic TV symbol is mistakenly still being used – when are you Anglos going to wake up and adopt the true cyber-rocket symbol for Uranus?!). Uranus also relates to friends, friendships, especially strangers suddenly popping into one’s life and indicates those areas of interests common to and shared by a seven-year generation – in Slothrop’s generation, 1912-1920, technology! For most individuals Uranus seldom plays a crucial, key, or predominant role in their lifetime. In Slothrop’s life it sure did, even though he didn’t know what his freedom was, much less what it was worth to him [390].

A singleton in the western hemisphere in the Sixth House, the house of Virgo, polarized Uranus stands dignified in its own sign of Aquarius, the elated co-ruler and focal determinator of the whole chart. Aside from Mercury, and placed in Mercury’s house, Uranus is the only other retrograde planet. It looks more like the rocket falling down on Slothrop, or is it a rainbow? The Sixth House, governed by Virgo & Mercury, is the house of health, labor (there’s those 3 of pentacles again, reversed due to retrograde Uranus), cousins, aunts & uncles (lingering Lyle), and service – whatever “service"” should imply to Tyrone . . . a rocket service? Maybe he just would have been better off locked up somewhere [390].

Uranus is furthermore the dispositor of Slothrop’s Sixth House and in matters of health Uranus rules accidents, nervous stress symptoms, high-tech medical experiments, and areas of mental health, most specifically paranoia. The foremost health binary of Uranus is the cutting edge between genius and madness. Sorry, no genius or madness in Slothrop's case, just some insanity (and ignorance) in the family [268, 553]. Uranus being isolated, retrograde, and defused indicates mediocrity and pretext. What we know about the conditioning experiments on Infant Tyrone causing his ultra-paradoxical reaction (response before stimuli), his initiation into the five Proverbs of Paranoia, and his ultimate scattering point more victimization than innovation, Slothrop being a victim of his own destiny.

In his chart Uranus has no positive aspects for channels of escape, methods of voicing any cultural prophecy, or revolutionary ideals. If you want genius, look somewhere else. If you want compulsion, well there are many more levels involved in this combination, starting with those ten thousand Slothrops … Slothrop’s Uranus, a singleton without singularity ! – virtual paper fabulating about living forever in a purified Electroworld [699]!

Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 9
Douglas’ Guestbookback to Episode 67

© all rights reserved, alle Rechte beim Autor, Douglas Kløvedal Lannark, Kopenhagen und Berlin, 2000-2005.

Links zu Douglas Kløvedal Lannark:

Douglas Kløvedal Lannark: MASON & DIXON: An Astrological Review — on this server.

Douglas Kløvedal Lannark: Hand–drawn Chart of Tyrone Slothrop — on this server.

Douglas Kløvedal Lannark: Venus Rules — Love — on this server.

The Fifth Gate – A documentary by Bente Milton: “Douglas Lannark is an acclaimed astrologer and expert in the various calendar systems used around the world.”

Douglas Kløvedal Lannark: Wann beginnt das neue Jahrtausend ? Kalender und Zeitrechnung – Meridian, 21.Jhg. 1999 / Heft 6.


Index Hauptseite Vorwort Die Parabel Dekonstruktion Michael D. Bell Summary Biographie Richard Fariña Robert Frost Galerie Literatur Luddism Mason & Dixon Monographien u. Aufsätze Patterns–Muster Proverbs for Paranoids Schweine Slow Learner Soccer Sterblichkeit und Erbarmen in Wien Vineland Weblinks Weiterführende Literatur The Wizard of Oz Fay Wray The Zero Homepage Seitenanfang/page up

© Otto Sell – Wednesday, February 21, 2001
Last update Sunday, March 26, 2006

GOWEBCounter by INLINE

back to Pynchon back to Otto's Homepage page up

The Wayback Machine