GRGR 1,1 - a small resonance / dedication / von Braun quote

[Cometman]

Penguin (the orange book) 
p.3 - "He's afraid of the way the glass will fall-soon-it will be a
spectacle: the fall of a crystal palace.  But coming down in total
blackout"

p. 7 "Trusswork is pierced by daylight, milky panes beam beneficently
down.  How could there be a winter - even this one - gray enough to age
this iron that can sing in the wind, or cloud these windows that open
into another season, however falsely preserved?"

Pirate's dream crystal palace resonates with the hothouse.  
I'm reminded of Rob Lowe's line in "About Last Night" in response to
the female antagonist's "- Western civilization; it's collapsing you
know."
Lowe - "I live in a pretty good neighborhood."

Associative complexes: 
nightmare, total blackout, the anticipated fall of a crystal palace
(home of a monarch, authoritarian rule, hard - like an iron queen)
passive passenger-hood, the feeling of dread of the fall mostly
stemming from fear for oneself rather than for any fondness for the
edifice

versus (or juxtaposed with, or developing into)

waking life, daylight, greenhouse (cottage industry, private
entrepreneurship), active work on enjoyable chores, affection for the
hothouse (the iron can sing, the windows open into another - better -
season, daylight streams beneficently)

-----------------------
dedication to Richard Farina - I've started reading the back annals of
the list, ("no, I asked for a _Kirghiz_ Light" - making me wonder if
anybody's correlated the Kirghiz Light with the Radiant Hour) but
haven't got far enough to know if this has been mentioned, ...but,
Tantivy/Slothrop looks a little like Farina/Pynchon through the
kaleidoscope of poetic license. 
Or, if you saw the movie Rudy, when Rudy's friend was killed in the
steel mill was when he became determined to play football at Notre Dame
-----------------------------

The section title "BEYOND THE ZERO" and the von Braun quote make me
want to think Mr Pynchon was reaching for the major kahuna: the
implication on life of the idea of survival beyond death.  With my
spray-can of Day-Glo criticism, I want to tag this page (there's lots
of white space to do it in) with a graffito about how the experiences
of people who are now dead were distilled in the refinery of the
artistic alembic: "Brought to you by..."
Under such a rose window, even a totally diehard pacifist might reflect
that every hellacious experience does birth a treasure, a-and if death
is not the end, somewhere victim and victor are enjoying a love feast;
preterite and Elect have worked out an org chart both can live with.