GR and structure

[MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu]

I strongly agee with the gist of your post, Gershom, though maybe not w/ the rigidity of 
your equation.  I think GR is clearly circular in structure, the rainbow's invisible other 
half completing the parabola into circle/mandala shape.  I have also always though that 
the last line leads right back into the opening, because I see the final rocket as the same
 rocket Pirate sees to open the novel.  I think that the novel occurs during the delta-t 
between that last rocket's detonation and the sound of its arrival, and I think it's the 
world's dream unfolding in the last instant before its annihilation (only to rise Phoenix 
like in VINELAND).  Some of this is idiosyncratic, but I think there's some kind of 
consensus to the novel's WAKE-like circularity.


along the
john m
*******************************
Gershom B., from the wrong address, writes:
>
>On this GR as antithesis to novel thing:
>     I've always read GR as a direct attack on the entire concept of a
>novel.  The two opposing symbols are the parabola and the mandala, right?
>The rocket walks the line between the two. So, the parabola looks
>suspiciously like the standard plot diagram. There's rising action, climax
>(brechenschlauss (sp?)), etc. Meanwhile, GR has four sections -- just like
>the rocket mandala. They oppose one another, but balance. 1 and 4 have
>Tyrone faiding in and out respectively, etc. So, Pynchon may be attacking
>western culture with the very structure of his novel, not just by foiling
>expectations, but also by responding with an alternative structure just as
>self-consistant and "solid" as the standard plot arc.
>     So, what'd'ya think? Standard Novel=Cult Of The Zero, and GR=life?
>     On this same thought, has anyone picked up any indications the end of
>GR leading back into the beginning, like with COL_49's last sentence
>containing the title, or Joyce's broken sentence in WAKE? 
>     
>
>         Gershom Bazerman (from the wrong address)
>
>