GRGR(3) - The Map(s) #2

[David Morris]

dm:
>> I don't think these stars are ever stated as representing
>>"conquests."  Any encounter will do.  That they coincide with
>>future bomb hits is "miraculous" in some sense.  Will we ever
>>KNOW the mechanism?

cfa:
>But that assumes that random rules these activities, which
>we have reason to suspect is not so.

dm:
A miracle is "supernatural."  It is an occurrence which breaks normal "laws"
of this world.  Slothrop's map is miraculous in that it defies any
perceivable cause/effect.  Whether the bomb hits are random or not doesn't
provide any clue as to the mechanics of his "gift."  So what does one do
when faced with such?  Speculate.  Is it "really" miraculous?

>Though  its been a while since I was down with Poisson, I think any
>process to which it is employed is not totally random. This is simple
>enough to apply to the rockets (they are targeted, subject to immutable
>laws of physics, there is at least an element of predictablility
>in their behavior); it is the possibility that Slothrop's conquests
>aren't entirely random which makes the whole scenario so fertile for
>speculation. I recall there being a direct implication of this
>sort by Slothrop in the early chapters.

Again, I'm not convinced with the term "conquests" here.  Slothrop doesn't
define the stars as such, and to force that definition falls into at least
one camp of interpretation as to Slothrop's mechanism.

>Again we see the contrast between strict causality and the
>oriental concept of interrelatedness of all.

The "oriental concept of interrelatedness of all" doesn't go against
causality (but you did include the word "strict," meaning "five senses
measurable" here, I guess).  The Book of Changes sees life as a flow,
governed by the forces of nature, in which proper or improper actions will
result in the next position in the wheel.  The action of casting the stalks,
thus determining the hexagram, seems random, and thus silly, but it is the
miraculous (synchonicitious) that one must place faith in to benefit from
this fortune method.