On Being Certain

[kelber at mindspring.com]

The missing word (and I have no easy ideas here) should have some connection to the (or a) larger theme of the entire novel.  So, are we far along enough on the read that we can speculate about what the theme (or themes) of ATD is (are)?

For example, my personal take on what GR is "about" (and I'm very open to other people's views on this)is:  the psycho-sexual anxieties resulting from living in the shadow of The Bomb.

M&D:  the death of the mystical/romantic at the hands of science/rationality.

ATD: entropy (which fits in well with the lack of a central protagonist and the anarchist sequences)?  the relativity of time?  If either (or both) of these is the hidden "word,"  how does the Shambhala/Tunguska sequence fit in?

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: 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."
>