GR translation: sweat drops in the air

[Paul Mackin]

On 10/30/2011 4:46 AM, Michael Bailey wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 2:33 AM, Mike Jing
> <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> Again, I completely misread the sentence.  So it is the Norden device
>> that is "bewildered", is that correct?  The published translation
>> seems to have got that part right.
>>
>>
> so to speak...
> anthropomorphizing the bombsight?
> etymology of bewilder is "thoroughly led astray"
> so if the bombsight's purpose is to sight where to drop the bombs, and
> it isn't pointing toward the ground...
>
> which sort of relates to how the pattern recognition of Basher and his
> wingman changes from perceiving a target to perceiving an angel
>
> but such leading astray from homicidal purposes is not necessarily a
> bad thing...
>
>
> then too remember the beginning of Vineland, where he talks about how
> maybe an angel is composed of the lives and deaths of human beings (1s
> and 0s)
>
Up until the angel sighting, the plane was probably under at least 
partial automatic control, with the Norden linked into the process.  
Then all of a sudden that control gets wrested away, this being very 
puzzling to the Norden.

P