GR translations: except for William the very first

[Michael Bailey]

>
> For what it's worth and aside from trying to decipher Mike's paragraph,  the
> Heresy is of much greater import in the total scheme of the book than the
> return. I mean, in setting William apart from the others
>
>

If we say William's philosophy is the exception among his generations,
this leads to a perplexity that I've wondered about before
:
if what we're talking about is the first William's *philosophy* being
different from that of his descendants,
(like in Young Frankenstein where the Gene Wilder character sez, "My
grandfather's work was doo-doo!")
-- then what is their philosophy supposed to be?

I don't think it's different from his.

>From the first bit, I picture 9 or 10 generations "seeing the Hand"
and then eventually  "going under the Berkshire ground to become part
of it"

- although they're not as vocal about it, I picture them pretty much
cleaving to his philosophy....
so in other words, the avalanche or slide of his family which began
with William's heresy continues in Slothrop, the Hand in the Sky
speaks to him as it did to them, and each generation articulates it
less adeptly, as they individually and as a group both degenerate in
social status, and physically decompose under the Berkshire ground
(except William the very first, whose body rots under English earth)

including Tyrone Slothrop, looking back at them and feeling that
avalanche in his blood...