On Being Certain

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

          Michael Bailey:
          is this in context of trying to figure 
          out what happened to Hassan?

          Is there a missing piece (like "kite") 
          that will clarify what is going on?

Well, I already covered Hassan [Shamans are different from you & 
me---you, at least] and all necessary information regarding what was 
going on is right there on the surface of the text.

There are many scenes in Pynchon's writing where a crucial word is 
pointed to but not said. Hassan's splitting the scene is not one of them.
Hell, if I had that much weed, I'd split the scene. Hassan's purpose was 
from 'higher ups', kabbalistic intelligence agencies found on a few, 
rare, trees of life.

However, I was struck at how Robert Burton's article pointed to a 
number of ideas in Pynchon's writing: ritual reluctance and the 
"word", holding two seemingly incompatible thoughts together, 
and a demonstration of "Everything Connects/It's All One/Look 
For the Deeper Hidden Connections."