IVIV (12): 195-197

[Michael Bailey]

alice wellintown wrote::

> That technology is neutral seems obvious, but, again, that's not what
> those P-texts say. You needn't belive in the spirit of machines,
> magic, I sure don't, and who knows what the author believes, and I
> don't care, but the texts, the texts, they believe. To read the works,
> you have to believe or suspend disbelief. The reader has to accept
> that he is that fellow at the start of GR who is, preterite, and will
> not be saved.
>

David Morris was drawn into this thread (which is one of the longest
I've ever seen)
but I won't be...  (-;
just popping in to say

a) that guy at the start of GR "old chap, you never thought you would
be saved" - for me (and I hope this
is a legit reading) this guy is being told that by the person or Angel
who is *saving* him...

b) Norman Mailer had some interesting words on the "psychology of
machines" in _Of a Fire on the Moon_
- but I think that one place where Gravity's Rainbow ascribes some
kind of will or intelligence to technology
is talking about how the ruined rocket-launching place and factory
isn't a mischance at all, it is the product
of a process chosen consciously - famous passage, naturally I can't
find it...(no hard copy here and no memory
of any of the exact words to search on)


-- 
--- "Bearing in mind that either I don't know
or it'll be my ass if I tell you, what is it, man?" - Coy Harlingen