Pointsman's obvious point ain't so obvious

[Henry Secularpeturbations]

--- David Gentle 


 One of the more
> > > obvious points in GR is that the V2 attacks,
> > > unlike tomahawks, are random.

I disagree. It's not  an obvious point in GR that the
V2 attacks are random. The randomness and the fear
that they could land where they were not pointed is
quite real, but one of the most obvious and important
ambiguities in the novel, is the one about the
randomness / percision of the V2 attacks, the rockets,
THE ROCKET, etc. In fact, focusing on one character's
view (Poinstman's, and, btw, his view is not static
and is not quite as fixed from the beginning as you
suggest) of the attacks, as you do in your analysis,
seems to box out so much of the rich subversive
postmodern detective paranoia and ambiguities of the
novel. Is Roger correct? Does Pointsman hold to his
Pavlovian views? Is he a true Pavlovian? Or has it got
this Pavlovianism mixed in with Middle-aged (the irony
here is generational, Pointsman as the excluded middle
generation between Pudding and Roger)   and Middle
ages magic (the mysterious Book, his role as the
Knight salying the Minotaur etc.) and inverted
Catholicism (Black mass)? Why is it Yang and Yin that
he hears as goes mad? What has Pointy got sewn into
his lab coats? 


> >
> You know I got the impression from somewhere
> (possibly reading the book) that the whole
> predictive
> power of Slothrops sexual needs was something that
> Pointsmen deluded himself about and that somehow
> it was all a big mistake.

Maybe. Maybe not. Did Slothrop make love to a girl
named Darlene or not? 

Pointsman is a Pavlovian Priest and Knight in search
of the grail (logos--the word and the blood of Christ
now become a plastic in the Gnosticized and Nazified
world of Blicero). 
 
Yes, religion and science and magic can be quite a
dangerous mixture. If you think I'm being too obscure
here ask for the pages and passages and I'll provide
them. 

So, for example,  when Roger's Poisson's equation
appears to be working people at Psi section begin to
treat him like a prophet. At first, Pointsman excludes
the middle, Roger's domain. He wants cause and effect.
He's concerned that the younger generation (postWar)
will put an end to history. So why does Pointsman need
Roger? And what about the actual hits? Doesn't the
novel raise the possibility that the V2 landed in
particualr neighborhoods? And so on.....ambiguity and
not much that is an obvious point. 

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