Tangent: Cause and effect

[Penny Padgett]

Hi all,

The recent musings on the righteousness of Major Marvy's fate
reminded me of a passage in _GR_ that's always intrigued me:

  You will want cause and effect.  All right.  Thanatz was
  washed overboard in the same storm that took Slothrop from
  the Anubis. [...]  (p. 663, Viking ed.) 

A critic (whose name I've unfortunately forgotten) labeled 
the narrator's tone here as "weary," but I'm not sure I agree.
What's weary about it, exactly?  If the narrator is weary
(presumably from the burden of satisfying the reader's constant
demands for cause and effect), is it suggestive that the
book's narrative structure begins to fracture at about this
point?  And is it not also interesting that the passage
previous to this one ends "There are things to hold on to. . . ."?

Penny