GRGR(8)--parallel worlds

[RedBug]

There is a precedent for the type of time warp that  John suspects. In V.
there's the mystery of Benny meeting Rachel for the first time twice, with
no explicit explanation, though there are references to warps in time's
fabric, peaks and valleys, &c.

Unfortunately, I'm at work with no textual aids. I'm not really sure how
to relate it to that seventh Christmas, however. (Wish I had that damn
book!)

TW

On Tue, 21 Jan 1997 MASCARO at HUMnet.UCLA.EDU wrote:

> 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
> 
>