GR part I and Tarot (was M&D p. 773)

[Dexter C. Palmer]

	This is from Weisenburger's "A Gravity's Rainbow Companion," p.
15:

	"Numerological correspondences also shape part 1. Discounting
analepses, the narration is carefully plotted through nine winter days; in
turn, the novel spans nine months, from mid-December until mid-September
of 1945. There are twenty-one episodes in part 1; the Tarot deck has
twenty-one numbered cards, if one omits another--the Fool--which is a zero
or null card with no assigned place in the Tarot sequence. And this part
begins a sequence of astrological correspondences. Events in these
episodes unfold beneath the sign of Pisces. Sagittarius, the ninth house
on the astrological calendar, would be the *actual* sign; but
symbolically, *virtually,* the action everywhere takes on a Piscean aspect
because this house, the twelfth, stands for death and dissolution, for
contact with the supernatural, as well as for warfare and strife. In part
1 Pisces becomes a sign of endings and anticipations, just as in part 2
Aries will emerge as a sign of renewals and departures."

	So take it for what it's worth, but IMO, Weisenburger's work isn't
exactly the pinnacle of scholarly accuracy (although GR pt. 1 does have 21
sections by my count, and not 22), and sometimes it seems like he
consulted Louis Farrakhan when he was writing the entries on numerology.
With a book of this magnitude with so many subjects and so many mystical
and mathematical allusions, *any* number can be made to seem a significant
number. I'd be more likely to buy the above Tarot explanation if each
section within the parts of GR was individually numbered (as are the
individual chapters in M&D), therefore giving the reader a clue that the
numbering of the chapters had some significance, rather than requiring him
or her to go back and count the number of sections in each chapter. 
Weisenburger's astrological readings are much more valid and interesting,
I think.

					--Dexter Palmer