GRGR(8)--parallel worlds

MASCARO at HUMnet.UCLA.EDU MASCARO at HUMnet.UCLA.EDU
Tue Jan 21 20:18:15 CST 1997


As the GRGR (8) thread runs its course, I need to try again to explain my dilemma.
 Last week I pointed out a *glitch*, called it a conundrum, in this section of GR.  Was 
referring to the *seventh Christmas of the war* remark made by the narrator.  As noted, 
most folks, following Weisenburger,  write this off as a simple blunder on TRP's part but 
that *solution* leaves me w/ a nagging frustration.  Isn't it odd that this novel, which we 
have all noted contains such exactitude, such meticulous cross references and 
documentary material (especially in this section, where, if my memory is correct, 
Weisenburger has tracked down the actual BBC programme for the day in question and 
found that the songs on the radio were *actually* on the radio), contain such a howler?  
Tommy forgets how to count to six!  
Something seems off.  I actually think that some serious weirdness in the book's time 
frame comes into being in this section, and that it centers on the Roger and Jessica story.  
We are so sucked in to the power of their love story that it really hurts to see it finally, 600 
pages later, apparently resolved in favor of the Beaver (not him!).  Do you feel as 
depressed as I do when I reread these sections and realize they aren't gonna end up 
together.  Surely, we might say, if any two people should end up together, (excepting 
Henry and his own troo) it's these two, whose very love is nuclear light!  It seems so 
cynical and so gratuitously mean to give Jessica over to Them in the form of her Beaver.  
Is there a way out of this sad ending? Or Tommy's innumeracy?

Well, since the leitmotif of this section might arguably be: *which do you want it to be?* 
What if TRP were playing here w/ an *alternate* or *parallel universe* type of narrative 
thing?  You know the device--doesn't Phillip K. Dick use it in one of his novels--What if 
Germany had won the war?  What if Hitler had been assassinated? What if Kennedy 
hadn't? etc.  It's a tried and true science fiction/fantasy device, I believe.  (I am sure you 
erudite folks will provide other examples of the genre--I really am interested in knowing).  
Anyway, there's a coupla other suspicious time warps (which I have to go back to my 
notes to properly describe) that lead me to wonder if maybe *which do you want it to be* 
might also apply to Roger and Jessica's fate.  Imagine another world in which the war 
doesn't end in 1945, but continues, maybe forever.  Dismal thought, but what if in this 
world Roger and Jessica stay together, also maybe forever?  What if there werre a little 
door to this world in this section of the narrative?  

An outlandish attempt to save the text, but lotsa fun to imagine.  Is it nonsense, or just 
maybe plausible?  Which do you want it to be?

john m




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