GRGR(2): fireflies and a winter no one has guessed at

[Murthy Yenamandra]

Before we pack our bags and move on to the GRGR(3) discussion, I have a
couple of things that need clarification:

1) (V22.30) "He likes to tell them about fireflies. English girls don't
know about fireflies, which is about all Slothrop knows for sure about
English girls."

What does Slothrop tell them about fireflies and what don't English girls
know about them? Are there no fireflies in England?

2) (V29.17) "But what Lights were these? What ghosts in command? And
suppose, in the next moment, all of it, the complete night, _were_ to go
out of control and curtains part to show us a winter no one has guessed
at...."

My immediate thought was "nuclear winter", but my on-line webster says
that the concept dates from 1983. Any ideas on what this "winter no one
has guessed at" is? Are the "Lights" prefiguring the Kirghiz Lights?

Murthy

-- 
Murthy Yenamandra, Dept of CompSci, U of Minnesota. Email: yenamand at cs.umn.edu
"Always there's that space between what you feel and what you do, and in
that gap all human sadness lies." - _Blue Dog_