Parallel Passage Pursuits

[jm]

>grip wrote, responding to my pattern-seeking:
>
>When I first read GR, I was struck with the notion that TRP was under the 
>influence of some psychotropic substance when he wrote certain passages. 
>Hemp derivatives have been around for quite some time and certainly 
>Celine had access to them. While under the influence, many connections 
>that are not normally apparent to the conscious mind, become obvious to 
>the altered state of consciousness. Later, when back to "normal", some of 
>these connections seem absurd. But the memory is there, and, I suspect, the 
>influence.
>
>grip
>

That's a possibility too.  And it doesn't just go for substances--simple
hynogogic states can create a similar effect.  But I think the parallel
settings of _North_ and _GR_ (the Zone during the closing days of WWII) and
_North_ and _Dhalgren_ (the two ruined cities, Berlin and Bellona) argue for
a more intentional echoing by Pynchon and Delany of the passages in Celine.  

                    -jm