GRGR(23): Further steps

[Jeremy Osner]

The engineers who built it as a refinery never knew there were any
further steps to be taken.

GR 521

What a beautiful statement! This passage brings to mind a script rather
like that of "Entropy" -- the ultimate goal of all this development and
refinement is Death. Refined hallucinogens (LSD, Leunagasolin, the
"breath of the first ancestor" -- which I imagine would give a high
something like Airplane Glue) are an almost incidental part of the
master plan of destruction -- the distinction between chaos and order
becoming increasingly blurred and presently vanishing. Chaos = Order,
Development = Laying Waste.

FWIW, Note that this episode is the first in many pages to break away
from the story of Slothrop; whereas prior to Slothrop meeting Greta, it
was rare for a single storyline to continue longer than one or two
episodes, since that meeting it's been almost continuous.

Jeremy