Title Gravity's Rainbow

First edition cover design
Author	Thomas Pynchon
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Historical novel, Postmodern literature, Hysterical realism
Publisher	Viking Press (first edition), Penguin Books, Bantam Books
Released	1973
Media type	Print (clothbound hardcover, paperback)
Pages	760 (Penguin)
ISBN	ISBN 0-14-018859-2 (Penguin)
Preceded by	The Crying of Lot 49
Followed by	Slow Learner - Early Stories

Gravity's Rainbow is an epic postmodern novel written by Thomas Pynchon and first published on February 28, 1973. Image File history File links Gravitys_rainbow_cover. ... Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. ... In political geography and international politics a country is a geographical entity, a territory, most commonly associated with the notions of state or nation. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A historical novel is a novel in which the story is set among historical events, or more generally, in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the author. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Hysterical realism, also called recherché postmodernism or maximalism, is a literary genre typified by a strong contrast between elaborately absurd prose, plotting, or characterization and careful detailed investigations of real specific social phenomena. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... Viking Press was founded on March 1, 1925, in New York City, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim. ... see also: The First Edition, a musical group fronted by Kenny Rogers. ... Penguin Books is a British publisher founded in 1935 by Allen Lane. ... Bantam Books (established 1945), owned by Random House, is a member of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... The barcode of an ISBN . ... The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) is a novel by the author Thomas Pynchon. ... Slow Learner is the 1984 published collection of six early short stories by the American novelist Thomas Pynchon. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. ... February 28 is the 59th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ...

The narrative is set primarily in Europe at the end of World War II and centers on the design, production and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the German military, and, in particular, the quest undertaken by several of the characters to uncover the secret of a mysterious device named the "Schwarzgerät", which will be installed in a rocket with the serial number "00000." To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... The Vergeltungswaffe 2 (V-2) (Reprisal weapon 2 Propaganda name given by Joseph Goebbels) , also known, in the Development Process as the A4 (Aggregat 1-4), was the first and till date has the most lethal combat record of any ballistic missile. ...

Frequently digressive, the novel subverts many of the traditional elements of plot and character development, traverses detailed, specialist knowledge drawn from a wide range of disciplines, and has earned a reputation as a "difficult" book. Look up plot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

In 1974, the three-member Pulitzer Prize jury on fiction supported Gravity's Rainbow for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. However, the other eleven members of the board overturned this decision, branding the book "unreadable, turgid, overwritten, and obscene." The novel was nominated for the 1973 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and won the National Book Award in 1974. Since its publication, Gravity's Rainbow has spawned an enormous amount of literary criticism and commentary, including two reader's guides and several online concordances, and is widely regarded as Pynchon's magnum opus. The Pulitzer Prize is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical composition. ... The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has been awarded since 1948 for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. ... The Nebula is an award given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the two previous years (see rolling eligibility below). ... The National Book Awards is one of the most preeminent literary prizes in the United States. ... Magnum opus (sometimes Opus magnum, plural magna opera), from the Latin meaning great work,[1] refers to the best, most popular, or most renowned achievement of an author, artist, or composer, and most commonly one who has contributed a very large amount of material. ...

Structure and chronology

Gravity's Rainbow is composed of four parts, each of these comprising a number of episodes whose divisions are marked by a graphical depiction of a series of squares. It has been suggested that these represent sprocket holes as in a reel of film, although they may also bear some relation to the engineer's graph paper on which the first draft of the novel was written.^[1] One of the book's editors has been quoted as saying that the aforementioned squares relate to censored correspondence sent between soldiers and their loved ones during the war. When family and friends received edited letters, the removed sections would be cut out in squared or rectangular sections. The squares that start each of the four parts would therefore be indicative of what is not written, or what is removed by an external editor or censor.^[2] The number of episodes in each part carries with it a numerological significance which is in keeping with the use of numerology and Tarot symbolism throughout the novel.^[3] For other uses, see Square. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Graph paper or quad-ruled paper is writing paper that is printed with fine lines making up a regular grid. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Visconti-Sforza tarot deck - The Devil card is a XX Century remake of the card missing from the original XV Century Deck The tarot is a set of cards featuring 21 trump cards and a special card called The Fool, in addition to the usual suit (face and pip) cards...

"Part 1: Beyond the Zero" consists of 21 episodes, which corresponds exactly to the number of cards in the Major Arcana of a Tarot deck if the Fool card is not counted or assigned a null value, hence the name of this part; "Beyond the Zero".^[4] The events of this part occur primarily during the Christmas Advent season of 1944 from December 18-26. The epigraph is a quotation from a pamphlet written by Wernher von Braun and first published in 1962: "Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death."^[5] The Major Arcana (Trumps Major, Major Trumps) of the Tarot deck consists of 22 cards. ... Christmas is an annual holiday that marks the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. ... Advent (from the Latin Adventus, implicitly coupled with Redemptoris, the coming of the Saviour) is a holy season of the Christian church, the period of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Christ, also known as the season of Christmas. ... In literature, an epigraph is a quotation that is placed at the start of a work or section that expresses in some succinct way an aspect or theme of what is to follow. ... Wernher von Braun stands at his desk in the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama in May 1964, with models of rockets developed and in progress. ...

"Part 2: Un Perm' au Casino Hermann Goering" (French for "A Furlough at the Hermann Goering Casino") contains 8 episodes, a number that evokes the mathematical symbol of infinity and makes repeated appearances throughout the narrative.^[6] The events of this section span the five months from Christmas 1944 through to Whitsunday the following year; May 20, 1945. The epigraph is attributed to Merian C. Cooper, speaking to Fay Wray prior to her starring role in King Kong, as recounted by Wray in the September 21, 1969 issue of the New York Times: "You will have the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood."^[7] Look up Furlough in Wiktionary, the free dictionary A furlough (IPA: ) is temporary leave of absence, especially from duty in the armed services or from a prison term. ... Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (also spelled Hermann Goering in English) (January 12, 1893–October 15, 1946) was a prominent and early member of the Nazi party, founder of the Gestapo, and one of the main architects of Nazi Germany. ... The term Whitsunday may refer to: The Sunday of the feast of Whitsun or Pentecost in the Christian calendar, observed 50 days after Easter. ... Merian C. Cooper Merian Caldwell Cooper (October 24, 1893, Jacksonville, Florida, USA — April 21, 1973, San Diego, California, USA, died of cancer) was an American aviator, American Air Force and Polish Air Force officer, adventurer, director, screenwriter and producer. ... Vina Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was a Canadian–American actress. ... This is about the original movie and novel. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

"Part 3: In the Zone" comprises 32 episodes, a number some speculate is related to the gravitational acceleration of 32 feet per second per second and also bearing significance to the Kabbalistic tradition.^[8] The action of Part 3 is set during the summer of 1945 with some analepses to the time period of Part 2 with most events taking place between May 18 and August 6; the day of the first atomic bomb attack and also the Feast of the Transfiguration. The epigraph is taken from The Wizard of Oz, spoken by Dorothy as she arrives in Oz and shows her disorientation with the new environment: "Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas any more..." Gravity is a force of attraction that acts between bodies that have mass. ... Kabbalah (Hebrew: ‎, Tiberian: , Qabbālāh, Israeli: Kabala) literally means receiving, in the sense of a received tradition, and is sometimes transliterated as Cabala, Kabbala, Qabalah, or other permutations. ... May 18 is the 138th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (139th in leap years). ... August 6 is the 218th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (219th in leap years), with 147 days remaining. ... The Fat Man mushroom cloud resulting from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rises 18 km (11 mi, 60,000 ft) into the air from the hypocenter. ... The upper part of The Transfiguration (1520) by Raphael, depicting Christ miraculously discoursing with Moses and Elijah The word Transfiguration means a changing of appearance or form. ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ... Dorothy Gale is a fictional character based on Dorethy (Neilson)(Cartwright)Hughes of Western Australia against her will(born 1915), the protagonist of most of the Oz novels by American author L. Frank Baum. ... Oz is a fantasy region containing four countries under the rule of one monarch. ... Terry, the Cairn Terrier who played Toto in the film Toto is the name of a fictional dog in L. Frank Baums The Wonderful Wizard of Oz series of childrens books. ... Official language(s) none Capital Topeka Largest city Wichita Area  Ranked 15th  - Total 82,277 sq mi (213,096 km²)  - Width 211 miles (340 km)  - Length 417 miles (645 km)  - % water 0. ...

"Part 4: The Counterforce" is made up of 12 episodes, this number being most commonly associated with the 12 Apostles and the total number of zodiacal signs. The plot of this part begins shortly after August 6, 1945 and covers the period up to September 14th of that same year; the day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, with extended analepsis to Easter/April Fool's weekend of 1945 and culminating in a prolepsis to 1970. The simple epigraphical quotation, "What?" is attributed to Richard M. Nixon, and was added after the galleys of the novel had been printed to insinuate the President's involvement in the unfolding Watergate scandal.^[9] “Apostle” redirects here. ... This article is about the astrological concept. ... In the Christian liturgical calendar, there are several different feasts known as Feasts of the Cross, all of which commemorate the cross used in the crucifixion of Jesus. ... Easter, the Sunday of the Resurrection, Pascha, or Resurrection Day, is the most important religious feast of the Christian liturgical year, observed at some point between late March and late April each year (early April to early May in Eastern Christianity), following the cycle of the moon. ... April Fools Day or All Fools Day, though not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on 1 April. ... Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ... Movable type on a composing stick In printing, galley proofs are preliminary versions of publications. ... The Watergate building. ...

The novel's title is also thought to refer to the 'shape' of the plot, which many critics, such as Weisenburger have found to be cyclical, like the true shape of a rainbow, which is often believed to be just an arc. This follows in the literary tradition of Joyce's Ulysses and Melville's The Confidence-Man.^[10] James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (Irish Séamus Seoighe; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish writer, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. ... Ulysses is a 1922 novel by James Joyce, first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from 1918 to 1920, and published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on February 2, 1922, in Paris. ... Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, essayist and poet. ... The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade was the last major novel by Herman Melville, the American writer and author of Moby-Dick. ...

Plot

Main article: List of episodes in Gravity's Rainbow

A V-2 rocket being fired.

The plot of the novel is complex, containing over 400 characters and involving many different threads of narrative which intersect and weave around one another.^[11] The recurring themes throughout the plot are the V-2 rocket, interplay between free-will and Calvinistic pre-destination, breaking the cycle of nature, behavioral psychology, sexuality and conspiracy theories such as the Phoebus cartel and the Illuminati. Gravity's Rainbow also draws heavily on themes that Pynchon had probably encountered at his work as a technical writer for Boeing, where he edited a support newsletter for the Bomarc Missile Program support unit. The Boeing archives are known to house a vast library of historical V-2 rocket documents, which were probably accessible to Pynchon. The following is a list of episodes in Thomas Pynchons Gravitys Rainbow. ... NASA image Center: KSC Center Number: 66P-0631 GRIN DataBase Number: GPN-2000-000613 URL : http://grin. ... NASA image Center: KSC Center Number: 66P-0631 GRIN DataBase Number: GPN-2000-000613 URL : http://grin. ... The Vergeltungswaffe 2 (V-2) (Reprisal weapon 2 Propaganda name given by Joseph Goebbels) , also known, in the Development Process as the A4 (Aggregat 1-4), was the first and till date has the most lethal combat record of any ballistic missile. ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ... A conspiracy theory attempts to attribute the ultimate cause of an event or chain of events (usually political, social, or historical events), or the concealment of such causes from public knowledge, to a secret, and often deceptive plot by a covert alliance of powerful or influential people or organizations. ... The Phoebus cartel was a cartel set up in 1924 that existed to control the manufacture and sale of light bulbs. ... This article does not adequately cite its references. ... The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA, TYO: 7661 ) is an aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. ... Bomarc missile launch The Bomarc Missile Program was a joint United States of America-Canada effort between 1957 and 1971 to protect against the USSR bomber threat. ...

As if to showcase both the erudite and the naughty, the narrative contains numerous descriptions of illicit sexual encounters and drug use by the main characters and supporting cast, sandwiched between dense dialogues or reveries on historic, artistic, scientific, or philosophical subjects, interspersed with whimsical nonsense-poems and allusions to obscure facets of 1940s pop culture. Popular culture, or pop culture, is the vernacular (peoples) culture that prevails in a modern society. ...

The main narrative thread (insofar as there is one) concerns a possibly promiscuous US Army lieutenant named Tyrone Slothrop. (At certain points in the book, Pynchon leads the reader to doubt the very existence of the women Slothrop claims to sleep with.) In "Beyond The Zero", some of the other characters and organisations of the book note that each of Slothrop's sexual encounters in London precedes a V-2 rocket hit in the same place by several days. The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

He is studied covertly and sent away by superiors in mysterious circumstances to the Hermann Goering casino in recently liberated France. There he learns of a rocket, the 00000, and a component called the S-Gerät (short for Schwarzgerät, which translates to black device) which is made out of the hitherto unknown plastic Imipolex G. It is hinted at that Slothrop's prescience of rocket hits is due to being conditioned as an infant by the creator of Imipolex G, Laszlo Jamf. After getting this information, Slothrop escapes from the casino into the coalescing post-war wasteland of Europe, "the zone", searching for the 00000 and S-Gerät. Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (also spelled Hermann Goering in English) (January 12, 1893–October 15, 1946) was a prominent and early member of the Nazi party, founder of the Gestapo, and one of the main architects of Nazi Germany. ... Operant conditioning is the use of consequences to modify the occurrence and form of behavior. ...

Slothrop's quest continues for some time "In The Zone" as he is chased by other characters. Many of these characters are referred to as "shadows," and are only partially glimpsed by the protagonist. Unfortunately, he is repeatedly sidetracked until his persona fragments totally in part four despite the efforts of some to save him. The final identification of him of any certainty is his picture on the cover of an album by obscure English band "The Fool".

Towards the end of "The Counterforce", it transpires that the S-Gerät is actually a capsule crafted to contain a human. The maniacal Captain Blicero prepares to fire the 00000. He launches it in a pseudosexual act of sacrifice with his bound sex slave Gottfried captive within its S-Gerät. At the end of a final episode where the rocket descends, the text halts with a complete obliteration of narrative from a rocket blast as the 00000 lands (or is about to land) on a cinema.^[12] Sexual slavery is a special case of slavery which includes various different practices: forced prostitution (which can include religious prostitution) single-owner sexual slavery slavery for primarily non-sexual purposes where sex is common or permissible In general, the nature of slavery means that the slave is de facto available...

Relation to actual wartime events

This image of Wernher von Braun is referenced in the narrative, giving a quite exact timeframe for some events in the book.

Many facts in the novel are based on technical documents relating to the V-2 rockets. Equations featured in the text are correct. References to the works of Pavlov, Ouspensky, and Jung are based on Pynchon's actual research. The firing command sequence in German that is recited at the end of the novel is also correct and is probably copied in verbatim from the technical report produced by Operation Backfire. Image File history File links Dornberger-Axter-von_Braun. ... Image File history File links Dornberger-Axter-von_Braun. ... Wernher von Braun stands at his desk in the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama in May 1964, with models of rockets developed and in progress. ... Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (Russian: ) (September 14, 1849 – February 27, 1936) was a Russian physiologist, psychologist, and physician. ... Carl Jungs partially autobiographical work Memories , Dreams, Reflections, Fontana edition “Karl Jung” redirects here. ... Operation Backfire was a military scientific operation during and after World War II, which was performed mainly by British staff. ...

In reality, a V-2 rocket hit the Rex Cinema in Antwerp, where some 1200 people were watching the movie The Plainsman, on December 16, 1944, killing 567 people, the most killed by a single rocket during the entire war. The Vergeltungswaffe 2 (V-2) (Reprisal weapon 2 Propaganda name given by Joseph Goebbels) , also known, in the Development Process as the A4 (Aggregat 1-4), was the first and till date has the most lethal combat record of any ballistic missile. ... For other uses, see Antwerp (disambiguation). ... The Plainsman is a 1936 Western movie directed by Cecil B. DeMille that presents a highly fictionalized account of the relationship between Wild Bill Hickok (Gary Cooper) and Calamity Jane (Jean Arthur), with a villainous Charles Bickford inciting the Indians to battle. ... December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...

The secret military organizations practicing occult warfare has an historical backdrop in the Ahnenerbe and other Nazi mysticism, whereas the allied counterparts are Pynchon's invention. The word occult comes from the Latin occultus (clandestine, hidden, secret), referring to knowledge of the hidden. In the medical sense it is used commonly to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e. ... Emblem Founded by Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Wirth, and Walter Darré on July 1 1935, Forschungs- und Lehrgemeinschaft Ahnenerbe e. ... Nazi mysticism is a quasi-religious undercurrent of Nazism; it denotes the mixture of Nazism with occultism, esotericism, cryptohistory, and/or the paranormal — especially in the traditions of Germanic mysticism. ...

Additionally, the novel uses many actual events and locations as backdrops to establish chronological order and setting within the complex structure of the book. Examples include the appearance of a photograph of Wernher Von Braun in which his arm is in a cast. Historical documents indicate the time and place of an accident which broke Von Braun's arm, thereby providing crucial structural details around which the reader can reconstruct Slothrop's journey. Another example is the inclusion of a BBC Radio broadcast of a Benny Goodman performance, the contents of which, according to historical record, were broadcast only once during the period of the novel and by which the events immediately surrounding its mention are fixed. Further historical events, such as Allied bombing raids on Peenemünde and the city of Nordhausen (close to the V-2 producing concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora) also appear in the novel and help to establish the relation of the work's events to each other. Wernher von Braun stands at his desk in the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama in May 1964, with models of rockets developed and in progress. ... Historical documents are document that contain important information about a person, place, or event. ... BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. ... Peenemündes position in Germany Peenemünde is a village in the northeast of the German island of Usedom. ... Roland statue in Nordhausen Twinning The city is twinned with Bet Shemesh in Israel Charleville-Mézières in France Bochum Ostrów Wielkopolski in Poland Nordhausen is a city of about 45,000 people at the southern border of the Harz mountains, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. ... Categories: Stub | Nazi concentration camps ...

Cultural impact

The novel is regarded by some as the greatest postmodern work of 20th century literature, while others have declared it unreadable. Postmodernist architecture of the Stata Center by Frank Gehry Sydney Opera House The term Postmodernism (sometimes referred to as Pomo, Po-Mo, or PoMo [1], [2], [3]) was coined in the early 1960s to describe a dissatisfaction with modern architecture, founding the postmodern architecture. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ...

The three-member Pulitzer Prize jury on fiction supported Gravity's Rainbow for the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. However, the other eleven members of the fourteen-member Pulitzer board overturned this decision, calling the book "unreadable," "turgid," "overwritten," and "obscene," with one member confessing to having gotten only a third of the way through it. The Pulitzer Prize is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical composition. ... The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has been awarded since 1948 for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. ...

The book, however, was nominated for the 1973 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and won the National Book Award for 1974. Winners of the Nebula Award for Best Novel. ... The National Book Awards is one of the most preeminent literary prizes in the United States. ...

The novel inspired the 1984 song "Gravity's Angel" by Laurie Anderson. In her 2004 autobiographical performance The End of the Moon, Anderson said she once contacted Pynchon asking permission to adapt Gravity's Rainbow as an opera. Pynchon replied that he would allow her to do so with one condition: the opera had to be written for a single instrument: the banjo. Anderson said she took that as a polite "no." Laurie Anderson (born Laura Phillips Anderson, on June 5, 1947, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois) is an American experimental performance artist and musician. ... For other uses, see Banjo (disambiguation) The banjo is a stringed instrument of African American origin adapted from several African instruments. ...

The novel also was the inspiration for the title of Pat Benatar's 1993 album Gravity's Rainbow [1]. This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Reportedly, a scene in the film Trainspotting (1996) is an homage to a passage where Tyrone Slothrop dives into a toilet [2]. The novel also figures in the animated television series The Simpsons; in the 13th-season episode "Little Girl in the Big Ten", Lisa Simpson spies a college girl's recreational reading material. Awestruck, she asks, "You're reading Gravity's Rainbow?" To which the college student replies, "Well, re-reading." This exchange may have motivated Pynchon to guest-star in three later episodes (though only twice in a speaking role), both of which preserve (and satirize) his anonymity by animating him with a paper bag over his head. Pynchon would later allude to the program in Against the Day, writing: Trainspotting is a 1996 Academy Award nominated, BAFTA winning cult film directed by Danny Boyle based on the novel Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. ... Simpsons redirects here. ... Little Girl in the Big Ten is the twentieth episode of The Simpsons thirteenth season. ... Against the Day is a novel by Thomas Pynchon released in the United States on November 21, 2006. ...

"Suckling," gritted Lindsay, "although, in a career which has tended increasingly to the squalid, further enormities without question await, none will prove to have been more objectionable, morally speaking, than these current manifestations of a diseased adolescence."

"You ever get around to having your own, let me know," Darby replied, in tones which suggested an intention to bite. "Maybe I can pass on a few tips."

"Why, you insufferable little—"

"Gentlemen," Randolph frowningly grasping his abdomen, "perhaps you will find it possible to put off this no doubt fascinating colloquy until a less-public occasion. And might I add, Mr. Noseworth, that these constant attempts to strangle Suckling do our public image little good."

The Japanese anime series Boogiepop Phantom also makes Rainbow allusions. (Such as the title of 11th episode, Under the Gravity's Rainbow) The main cast of the anime Cowboy Bebop (1998) (L to R: Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Ed Tivrusky, Faye Valentine, and Ein the dog) For the oleo-resin, see Animé (oleo-resin). ... Boogiepop Phantom is based on the Boogiepop series of books by Kouhei Kadono, which have also been adapted into the live action film Boogiepop and Others. ...

Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, with cover art by Frank Miller, released October 31 2006.

A German film, Prüfstand VII (Test Stand 7, 2002) is based upon Gravity's Rainbow. Starring Inga Busch as Bianca and Jeff Caster as Pointsman, it was nominated for the 2003 Adolf Grimme Award in the area of "outstanding individual achievement" (recognizing its writer/director Robert Bramkamp). Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (425x607, 90 KB)[edit] Summary http://img. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (425x607, 90 KB)[edit] Summary http://img. ... Frank Miller (born January 27, 1957) is an American writer, artist and film director best known for his film noir-style comic book stories. ... October 31 is the 304th day of the year (305th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 61 days remaining. ... Test Stand VII (Prüfstand VII in German) was the most important launch pad for testing V-2 rockets at Peenemünde during World War II. Test Stand VII was located at 54° 10′ 6″ N 13° 48′ 17″ E. It was surrounded by an elliptical earth wall, and was...

New York artist Zak Smith created a series of 760 drawings entitled, "One Picture for Every Page of Thomas Pynchon's Novel Gravity's Rainbow" (also known by the title "Pictures of What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon's Novel Gravity's Rainbow") [3]. Occupying eleven rows and over eleven meters of wall space, the drawings attempt to illustrate, as literally as possible, every page of the book. The piece includes palm trees, shoes, stuffed toys, a lemon meringue pie, Richard Nixon, Sigmund Freud, an iron toad wired to an electric battery, a dominatrix, and other exotic images from the novel. The series had a successful reception at New York's 2004 Whitney Biennial event, and it gained a reputation "as a tour de force of sketching and concept" (Abbe 2004). Artist Zak Smith was born in Syracuse, N.Y., in 1976, and grew up in Washington, D.C. After receiving a BFA from Cooper Union in 1998, he studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and went on to receive an MFA from Yale University in 2001. ... Sigmund Freud (born Sigismund Schlomo Freud) May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939; (IPA: ) was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who co-founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ... A dominatrix (from the Latin dominatrix, meaning a female ruler or mistress; plural dominatrices) or mistress is a woman who takes the dominant role in bondage and discipline, domination and submission or sado-masochistic sexual practices, which are commonly abbreviated as BDSM. The male equivalent is Master. ...

David Lowery has stated that the Camper Van Beethoven song All Her Favorite Fruit is based on a subplot of Gravity's Rainbow. David Lowery is an American guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, the founder of two popular college radio bands: Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker. ... Camper Van Beethoven was founded in 1983 in Santa Cruz, California as an alternative rock, new wave music, and punk rock group. ...

The pop group Army of Lovers derive their name from a graffito reference ("an army of lovers can be beaten") in Gravity's Rainbow. (This is itself a reference to Plato in the Symposium, albeit with the meaning reversed). British indie band Klaxons have a song called Gravity's Rainbow. The song "Proverbs for Paranoids 3" [4] by Boston post-punk band Clickers [5] quotes text from Gravity's Rainbow in its lyrics [6]. Army Of Lovers was a Swedish dance music group founded in 1987. ... For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Klaxons are an English band, currently based in London. ...

Derek Gregory named his last chapter in the influential The Colonial Present 'Gravity's Rainbows' (sic) after the book. Gregory's book, which has had a large impact in modern political geography, is a highly critical account of actions by Israel, the United Kingdom and the USA in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq. Derek Gregory (1 March 1951) is an influential British geographer from the United Kingdom. ... Political geography is a field of human geography that is concerned with politics. ...

Availability

Gravity's Rainbow is available in paperback under ISBN 0-14-018859-2 (New York: Penguin, 1995), ISBN 0-14-028338-2 (New York: Penguin, 2000), and ISBN 0-14-303994-6 (New York: Penguin, 2006).

Also available is Steven C. Weisenburger's A Gravity's Rainbow Companion: Sources and Contexts for Pynchon's Novel (Athens: U of Georgia P, 1988, ISBN 0-8203-1026-3), which documents many of the references and allusions used in the book. A revised and expanded second edition of Weisenburger's book, now including maps and illustrations, was published in November 2006 under ISBN 0-8203-2807-3.

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Gravity's Rainbow

The following links were last verified 21 February 2006.

• HyperArts' Gravity's Rainbow Web Guide & Concordance
• Gravity's Rainbow Wiki
• From The Modern Word:
  • More selected Gravity's Rainbow quotes
  • Discussion of Slothrop's appearance on The Fool album (with pictures)
  • Protective Coating: Bearing the Weight of Pynchon Using the Spectrum of Freud's Insight An analysis of Pynchon's use of parody in relation to Freudian theory
  • Zak Smith's Illustrations For Each Page of Gravity's Rainbow (see also Mary Abbe, "Words and pictures; A brilliant new show pairs 755 antic drawings with a monster novel", Minneapolis Star Tribune 17 December 2004).
• Essay of similarities between Gravity's Rainbow and Catch-22