Re. Blicero

[jbor]

Some more comments, thoughts, questions:

David Seed: "To avoid the reader categorizing Blicero too easily Pynchon
depicts him relativistically ... " (_Fictional Labyrinths_, p. 172)

And, re. this "transcendence" issue, Joseph W. Slade also suggests that
Blicero's attempt to "transcend" is a "charade", and that he "completes the
charade apparently by stepping into the oven-like flames of the final
lift-off." ('Religion, Psychology, Sex and Love in _GR_' in Clerc's volume
of essays, p. 165).

I've noted this notion repeated a couple of times (though perhaps it's just
in other of Slade's commentaries). Personally, I don't think there is the
slightest shred of evidence that Blicero actually steps into the flames
after the 00000's lift-off. I think the actual fate of Blicero is
deliberately left wide open at the end of the text.

Slade goes on to say: "In a way, the game, the ritual, is more significant
than its conclusion, which signifies the exhaustion of Blicero's perverse
energy. He has persevered. ... "

Which, in the context of his argument, would be to claim that he has
transcended, wouldn't it?

I think David Morris's point regarding the passage at 724 is an excellent
one. Isn't Blicero attempting to transcend what he perceives "the cycle" to
be?

best