"why should I give allegiance based on the word of some aquatic bint?"

[Cometman]

>From: jporter <jp3214 at earthlink.net>
>Subject: GRGR P1S1: Willing Suspension-"It's All Theatre"

>Well I say, to all who would raise the fear of "chaos" as an
>excuse to impose some arbitrary and self-promoting order

is that why they do it?

>Arm the proletariat! Let freedom reign! Grease the guillotines!

yoicks, perhaps I should retreat from my previous statement "I like the
anarchic format so far" - my anarchism is the non-violent type, I'm
with the anarcho-syndicalist in Monty Python's Holy Grail ("now you see
the violence inherent in the system!") but not with Szolgosz.  If
somebody's actually motivated enough to say "I'll lead the discussion
on this particular bit" then have at it I say.  Were previous group
reads blessed with such organization?  Who compiled the roster, or did
somebody just put out a list of section headings for the first comer to
sign up for each?  Having a rotating "section leader" might actually be
fun, and give everybody a chance to get a bit extra attention.  I know
I fall prey to skimming all but my favorites (whoever they may be that
week) when pressed for time.

(Way off-topic: it's always struck me funny when anarchists attempt to
organize, and tragic when they fail to eschew violence - isn't it
obvious that the thing which is odious about authoritarianism is the
use of violence?) 

>Now, about that key phrase: "but it's all theatre" which must
>impose a certain frame on any interpretation of the.....

I would call that sentence a modifier of the whole evacuation sequence,
that leads me in 2 directions. 1) although the ensuing paragraphs are
highly detailed, I think the dreaming realization that the activity is
"all theatre" is indicative of Pirate* beginning to wake up.
2) It's also a sign, within the dream's logic, of a certain alienation
from the whole process, an alienation also alluded to just above: "it
will be a spectacle-the fall of a crystal palace" -- a mere
"spectacle", not a "tragedy, and not "my" or "our", just "a" crystal
palace.

* at this point in my reading, I'm thinking the whole dream belongs to
Pirate, but maybe not. He could be dreaming it "for" somebody, eh?

--- hmm, also minor resonance on page 4 (Penguin), the power station
and gasworks are "crystals grown in morning's beaker" - so he's woken
up, and the infrastructure around him hasn't actually fallen (yet)

I was trying to remember how that Pirate action worked anyway, he gets
a message on the V-2 -- who sent that?  Somebody today mentioned it was
Katje.  Egads, I had totally forgotten that (or not apprehended it at
all the 1st time) -- 
Now I'm thinking of Pirate as a Pynchon-surrogate, and Slothrop as a
more idealized generic young American.
After all, it's Pirate who has the ability to experience the dreams of
others (as Pynchon has the ability to evoke credible musings in all
types of different characters), Pirate who works within the power
structure (as Pynchon worked at Boeing), Pirate who receives a message
carried by the bomb and rushes to help, (as Pynchon received a
combination of liberal and scientific education and rushes to interpret
life for us before we're turned into stiffs and big holes and debris
too, without the capacity to appreciate it) - "using a simple Nihilist
transformation whose keywords he can almost guess" (p 72, Penguin)

--- Jesus Christmas, (oh, btw, Happy Halloween ya'll) there REALLY IS a
nihilist transformation:
"THE NIHILIST SUBSTITUTION CIPHER
One of my favorite ciphers is the Nihilist Substitution Cipher.
Classified as a periodic, it employs numbers to represent letters.
Numbers are derived from a 5 x 5 Polybius Square etc etc"

details on http://www.threaded.com/cryptography12.htm
Pynchon DOES have m4d skillz - he pwns!  <lol>
No doubt there are multiple reasons why he used it there, though I
can't fathom them atm.