---
layout: post
status: publish
published: true
title: What is Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow about?

wordpress_id: 815
wordpress_url: https://www.martineve.com/?p=815
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categories:
- Literature
- Thomas Pynchon
- Academia
tags:
- Thomas Pynchon
- Gravity's Rainbow
- Synopsis
comments:
- id: 6202
  author: Adam Roberts
  author_email: dracroberts@aol.com
  author_url: http://www.adamroberts.com
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  content: ! 'I might say something more about Pynchon''s sense of humour, which is
    both localised and general and which I''m not sure gets long enough shrift in
    critical analysis.  So, something like: ''the guy''s first novel was called <i>V</i>
    and so naturally he makes his second novel about WWII rocketry, which is to say,
    <i>V2</i>.'''
- id: 6203
  author: Martin Paul Eve
  author_email: martin@martineve.com
  author_url: ''
  date: !binary |-
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  content: Yeah, I think the humour aspect is sorely missing from the version I came
    up with. Although, at another level, the humour is itself open to serious interpretation
    under high/low setups; Pynchon appears critical, while simultaneously a product,
    of the culture industry.
- id: 6204
  author: mark kohut
  author_email: markekohut@yahoo.com
  author_url: http://markkohut.tumblr.com
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  content: I think it is a decent summary. Except that I think the last line, albeit
    true, is unnecessary.
- id: 6205
  author: Martin Paul Eve
  author_email: martin@martineve.com
  author_url: ''
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  content: Perhaps so, especially given that it's obvious from the interpretative
    slant I've already applied. I think it's a gut instinct in me to make this comment,
    though, in the face of the "Pynchon's a nihilist" school of criticism.
- id: 6512
  author: Nick
  author_email: nmoug1222@gmail.com
  author_url: ''
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  content: I think you leave out the spiritual aspects of his novels, too. Although,
    yes, history plays an, obviously, large part in his novels.
- id: 6513
  author: Martin Paul Eve
  author_email: martin@martineve.com
  author_url: https://www.martineve.com
  date: !binary |-
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  content: ! 'Well, yes, but on the other hand if I was covering every aspect I''d
    have just said: GR is about everything ever.'
---
<p>As a scholar working on literature, I am often asked to describe my work in potted form. This necessarily involves an introduction to the work of Thomas Pynchon, an extremely difficult task. Pynchon's novels cannot be considered normal literature; they are vast, sprawling pieces that encompass hundreds of characters, vast historical scope and dense prose. When I first started working on Pynchon, I would extoll the virtues of the linguistic play, the indeterminacy that is so typical of Pynchonesque high-postmodernism. This does not do the texts justice; as <a href="http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_works.html#Anchor-Gravity%27s-14210">The Modern Word</a> puts it: "Right . . . you know, and Ulysses is about two guys and their day, and Moby Dick is about a whale".</p>
<p>These days, when asked to sum up <i>Gravity's Rainbow</i>, I describe it as a genealogical history; a history of the present. I try something like this:</p>
<blockquote><p>One of the most astute observations of <i>Gravity's Rainbow</i> is that the evil of mankind (or "nature") "does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation"; an observation framed in the epigraph attributed to Wernher von Braun. This implies a transposition to a new setting, persisting and always collecting around centres of power, embodied by the novel's final, America-bound, transatlantic V-2/ICBM. Through this impossible moment, wherein the Rocket that is so central to the text morphs into the absolute symbol of Cold War Mutually Assured Destruction, Pynchon highlights that behind twentieth-century America's technological and economic supremacy lies the dark negotiations of Operation Paperclip and a re-embodiment of the right-wing politics supposedly vanquished in the Second World War. How many of us notice, inscribed upon our antibiotics, the second label, permanently hidden beneath the surface-level, reading “sulfonamide” and “I.G. Farben”? How many of us see, when we watch satellite television, the German technician crying: “Vergeltungswaffe”? It is this uncovering of a sinister history that drives the novel's paranoia; it's not paranoia if they're really after you. Pynchon achieves this through a fusion of styles that induce historical dramatic irony, bringing a heightened sense of self-awareness. As a result, his novels should be considered highly political.</p></blockquote>
<p>This type of summary is so reductive that it doesn't even touch on the vast scope of the work -- I haven't even mentioned the word "Slothrop" or given an outline of the "plot" -- but, when you need to describe Pynchon quick 'n' dirty, how else can it be done?</p>