GRGR (33) - The Glass Sphere

[David Morris]

The place Blicero describes is very similar to Hades.  Hades might be called 
an "afterlife," but it is occupied only with the faint shadows of those that 
were alive.  This fits well w/ Pynchon's space-age version:  "Hardly solid, 
no more alive than memories, nothing to touch... only their remote images, 
black and white film images, grained" (723.15)

There is a topographic confusion as to this sphere's locus.  It's "very high 
and far away."  But is it an object (viewed from the outside) relative to 
the earth, or is it _surrounding_ the earth (and viewed from the inside), or 
is it neither?  "Gravity rules all the way out to the cold shpere, _there is 
always the danger of falling_"  Who's in danger of falling?  Those venturing 
from earth out to the colony, or is it the colonists as they swing and dive 
through the space within?  If they were to fall, where would the land?

Another obvious connection w/ this sphere is the light bulb, especially 
considering that the colonist are projected images, and that the sphere 
contains a vacuum.  I imagine a frosted bulb with blurry flickering B&W 
images inside that rarely come into focus on the surface of the bulb.  This 
vacuum tube might also figure for the first television sets.  TV 
afterlife...

David Morris
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