About Singularities

[LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU]

Ralph wonders:
"What is TRP trying to get at with the one and only one or each kind?
By no less an authority than *the text* there is more (or less) afoot
than mere archetypes.  And not only am I confessed but "Slothrop is
puzzled" which results (page 70) in the question and answer dialogue
(between Slothrop and PISCES?, Them?, *the text*?) making it even more
bazaar.  I also don't recall this idea being picked up latter in the
book, but it has been a couple of years since I read the whole thing."
 
THEY try to reduce everything and everybody to one/once, but as Return is
Eternal, so it is impossible to reduce everything so.  It turns out that
Crutchfield's got to have not just one Indian but one of every kind of
Indian with every kind of variation, which eventually means that just
about everybody will be included.  It speaks both to the impossibility
of Crutchfield's self-appointed task and to the hopeless of Their task.
Diversity and change *will* come, will They or nil They.
 
Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)