MDMD(3)--commentary

[Tom Stanton]

>>This intriguing commentary is courtesy of Andrew Dinn.
>>     As Planets do the Sun, we orbit `round God according to laws as
>>     elegant as Kepler's.  God is as sensible to us, as a Sun to a
>>     Planet. Tho' we do not see Him, yet we know where in our Orbits we
>>     run, -- when we are closer, when more distant, -- when in His
>>     light and when in shadow of our own making. We feel as
>>     components of Gravity His Love, His Need, whatever it be that
>>     keeps us circling. Surely if a Planet be a living Creature, then
>>     it knows, by something even more wondrous than Human Sight, where
>>     its Sun shines, however far it lie.  -- Revd Wicks Cherrycoke,
>>     Unpublished Sermons (M&D 94)
>> 
>> Astonishing, that is, to anyone familiar with Gravity's Rainbow. That
>> capitalised mention of `Gravity', those planets as `living
>> Creature[s]' should do more than ring a few bells - the Fire Brigade
>> should be assaulting your consciousness. `Gravity His Love'.

Hmmm. I read it a little differently. "We feel" has the object "His Love,
His Need,.." while "as components of Gravity" modifies "We". So we
could recast thus:

	We, as components of Gravity, feel His Love, His Need, 
	whatever it be that keeps us circling. 

TRP of course wrote it with "Gravity His Love" together, allowing another
meaning...maybe...

>> [s n i p ] And if this is a pointer back to Gravity's Rainbow then the 
>>`Unpublished Sermon' credit suggests maybe that this is an image 
>> retrieved from the cutting room floor...

Or a reference to all the GR themes back in time to M&D. Dunno if this
is a strong case for recycling stuff he wrote 30 years ago...

>> First, let's consider that
>> title. If gravity is `God's Love, His Need, whatever it be that keeps
>> us circling' then what does that make `Gravity's Rainbow' but that
>> which is ever cycling in greater or lesser orbit, moving sometimes
>> nearer, sometimes further away, but always kept in its track by that
>> continuous fall (Fall?) towards the centre.

I love the notion of The Fall kept in check by Gravity, since we are 
components of Gravity. The sentence allows this reading, but it is
also a methaphor that, like components of Gravity feeling a force, 
we feel His Love.

>>  Each planet in this solar
>> model is a living creature, be it a human soul or a lesser, lapsed
>> deity:

"A soul in every stone" of course. 

I'll bring up a Topick I tossed out before: that there are parallels in the
structure of GR and MD (as much as I've read of MD so far):

GR				MD
Pirate as a "dream narrator"	Cherrycoke as "narrator"
Mason's lost Rebekkah		Mexico's lost Jessica
Down the toilet pipe		Down the pipe to the Ear
Dot on the sun			Dots on a map
Slothrop's sexual exploits		Vrooms & others
The Zone			America

I'm not suggesting the books are identical, only that TRP recycles
a lot of thematic structures from GR into MD. The MD versions are
maybe a little more subtle, but I find it uncanny that at times I feel
like I'm reading a major rewrite...