Gravity’s Rainbow Week Three

Moritz von Schwind‘s 1851 painting of Rübezahl features fly agarics.

Recap & Reflections

This section starts with a very evocative description new Dutch character – Katje. I struggled to figure out the prism style of this passage, is she being observed? Filmed? Is this from her perspective? Either way, it sets her up as a desirable and coveted operator and object, wherever she is. Currently, she is in the house with Osbie Feel, who is preparing Destroying Angel, a psychedelic mushroom they propagate on their roof, along with the bananas, i suppose. A little aside, when i looked the mushroom up, wikipedia tells me it can not be propagated – making its mythical properties more mysterious. I believe the reason there is such a focus on the mushroom is because its most famous pop culture depiction is Alice in Wonderland – this section is stuffed with fairy tale imagery.

Then we are back in Katje’s semi-recent memory of being kept in captivity by Captain Blicero. I think Pynchon is intentionally vague about the terms of the captivity, maybe that at one time it was voluntary, but maybe sometimes not. She is also kept in captivity with her “brother in slavery, brother in play” Gottfried. Unless i misunderstood, i believe Gottfried is actually captive in a cage when he is not at his post. He is a poor performing soldier under Captain Blicero, which gives him a little more of motivation for the arrangement. For how harrowing this situation is, I loved this section – it made me really think about how fairy tales usually involve gender and the domestic. We also get some background information on Captain Blicero, who seems to be on a world tour of terror before WWII. Katje ends up deserting her post and escaping to England, where she trades some secrets about the bombs, equipment and people in her camp, but does not give the location. She contemplates her own usefulness, her part in the big machine. There is some sexual tension with Pirate. Or something.

It is heavily implied that Katje was predetermined to abandon her loyalties and travel far away because of her bloodline. We then are catapulted into a pages long vignette about Katje’s ancestor, an OG Dutch colonizer and dodo murderer. I found this passage was a tiny prism to look at this grand sweeping narrative of colonization – a Dutch nobleman killing defenseless birds far, far away from home.

Just like that, we are back on the roof with Pirate and Osbie Feel who are discussing Katje going to “The White Visitation” as an “unforeseen dividend, for someone”. We then get a description of the film made to provoke a raid of a false camp. Wait? Real camp? not sure. Then it is implied that Katje is being filmed as a stimulus – also to stir up troops? or to stir up the animals in the lab?

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Then we are free in the streets where Slothrop is roaming after being “cut loose” from St. Veronicas. He is back to work, with special permission, but something is off. He feels a presence, or like something is still watching. My mind went to some sort of possession/remote viewing. All of the sudden his routine is thrown. He runs into a nurse from St. Veronica’s and initiates an affair – because he feels off his game, is she misleading him? We then spend some time in the nurses flat, eating bonbons. This was incredible – the candies descriptions were like the worst dish at the Great British Bake Off. A bomb drops close the nurse’s flat, which is convenient for Slothrop’s usual post-bomb coitus programming.

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With Roger and Jessica now, in a more hostile mood than the last time we visited. We find out some of the limitations of their relationship – Roger’s moodiness and paranoia, Jessica’s commitments to Beaver. This section is scrambled, really driving home how scrambled Roger and Jessica are when they are together. It seems like their physical magnetism even stops them from exchanging personal information, or speaking at all, really. I noticed that Roger says the 7th christmas of the war, while Jessica says the 6th. Then we are transported to Roger and Jessica in love or infatuation at a christmas market, a past year, and all that comes with it. Children, colonization, miracles, prisoners etc etc.

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We are now in a dream – the perspective changes, who’s dream is this?
Back to Pointsman, who is taking stock of his life – and considering abandoning all his dogs for a single human mind – Slothrop.

All of the names mentioned in this section:
Osbie Feel, Pirate, Katje, Captain Blicero, Gottfried, Mme. Ophir, Mussert*, Rilke*, Young Rauhandel, Captain Prentice, Piet, Wim, Bela Lugosi*, Ernest Bevin*, Frans, Hendrik, Myron Grunton, Roger Mexico, Gerhardt Von Goll, Lang, Pabst, Lubitsch, Edwin Treacle, Rollo Groast, Aaron Throwster, Mitchell Prettyplace, Crouchfield, West Wardman, Whappo, Slothrop, Darlene, Mrs. Quod, Compton Mackenzie*, Austin, Hot Haragan, Tank Tinker, Yrjo, Beaver aka Jeremy, Maria Montez*, Jon Hall*, Bridgsby, Thomas Tallis*, Henry Purcell, Henrich Suso, Mr. Morrison, Mr. Noel Coward, Wendell Willke, ‘arry Pollitt, Thomas Gwenhidny, Spectro, Pointsman, Allen Lamplighter, Promond, Maudie Chilkes, Piotr*, Natasha**, Niolai**, Sergei**, Katinka**, Pavel Sergevich, Varvar Nikolevna, Pierre Janet*, Rechssieger von Thanatz**, Alpdruken, Vicar De Le Nuit.
*historical figures
**dogs

– Claire