GR translation: her glassy wastes

[Richard Fiero]

I've no idea what "glassy wastes" might mean. The word "waste" 
appears 62 times in GR (waste, wastes, wastebasket). The word "glass" 
appears a large number of times.
Anyone who has had a few calculus courses has had her brain 
permanently altered. The word "Zero" and the term "vanishingly small" 
appear just prior to "glassy wastes." A zero is the root of a 
polynomial and is also the value of the derivative of a function at a 
maximum or minimum which is determined by differentiating a function 
into vanishingly small pieces.

Mike Jing wrote:
>Well, that is indeed the question.  I think Alice made a valid point.
>What I need here is interpretation.  Rather than trying to pick the
>words apart, I am trying to figure out what the author is referring to
>by "her glassy wastes".  Obviously, my own reading of the world, and
>of the book, is inadequate.  Thus I need your help.
>
>Since I am asking, what does it mean that each of them was "_used_ for
>the ideology of the Zero"? (P152.16)  What is the "ideology of the
>Zero" anyway?  And what is "Nora's great rejection" and why is it so
>great? (P152.17)  What is the "Outer Radiance" that Nora saw?
>(P153.13)  Clearly these things are closely related to each other and
>to "her glassy waste", and may have been discussed countless times
>before.  Or maybe not.  In any case, this this the most difficult
>episode in part 1 and I might as well ask all the questions now.
. . .