GRGR(16) sleigh 359.3 with M&D echoes

[Peter Petto]

Doug Millison asked for suggestions what Pynchon was getting at, with the 
enormous sleigh that brought the tourists to see Chu Piang (not unlike 
M&D's Jesuit Coach).

Initially I think it reflects the elaboration upon elaboration of a doper's 
dream. I don't know about opium, but these multileveled ornaments and 
flourishs seem characteristic to me of dope-drenched stories I've heard or 
told. They seem equally indicative of ecstatic religious expression, be it 
a mandala or the raiment of Philadelphia mummer. There's a great poem by 
Rumi about the inside-larger-than-the-outside using the metaphor of the 
whole world (seen) inside the human eye. I'm not near my library, so I 
can't reproduce it now.

Both the sleigh and the coach also remind me of my sense of wondering 
encountering new things when I was a child: a medical clinic, the shoe 
repair guy's workshop.... And it reminds me of the little car at the circus 
from which dozens of clowns emerged.

For me, it's more magic than mathematics (unless one sees magic in numbers).