Analysis of Gravity's Rainbow, Part 3 - Chapter 30: Lyle Bland's Influence in Industry and Politics, the Great Pinball Difficulty, Bland Becomes a Freemason, Astral Travel
I really got caught up in the paragraph 589 about the explorers who journeyed north. We celebrate those who returned and rewarded them with fame. The focus was on the those who journeyed, not the journey itself. We mourn those who did not return. But why? They stayed focused on the task and not themselves. Just because they didn't return for their fame, doesn't mean they failed. Maybe they found the limit. Maybe they chose not to return. Just because we didn't hear them announcement of victory, doesn't mean it didn't happen. "What did Adree find in the polar silence: what should we have heard?"
And all the discussion in this of journeys, be they eastward, west, north, or south, really is bringing the ideas of Mason & Dixon full circle. Or vice versa. M&D seems to be setting out the world where these journeys or journeymen become lauded independent of what they did. "What should we have heard?" is haunting as well, especially with all of these ideas in mind.
I really got caught up in the paragraph 589 about the explorers who journeyed north. We celebrate those who returned and rewarded them with fame. The focus was on the those who journeyed, not the journey itself. We mourn those who did not return. But why? They stayed focused on the task and not themselves. Just because they didn't return for their fame, doesn't mean they failed. Maybe they found the limit. Maybe they chose not to return. Just because we didn't hear them announcement of victory, doesn't mean it didn't happen. "What did Adree find in the polar silence: what should we have heard?"
And all the discussion in this of journeys, be they eastward, west, north, or south, really is bringing the ideas of Mason & Dixon full circle. Or vice versa. M&D seems to be setting out the world where these journeys or journeymen become lauded independent of what they did. "What should we have heard?" is haunting as well, especially with all of these ideas in mind.