User:Snardbafulator/GR plot summary

The opening pages of the novel follow Pirate Prentice, first in his dreams and later around his house in wartime London. Pirate then goes to work at S.O.E. (aka The Firm), a top-secret military branch (GR 11) and we soon meet an eccentric retinue on the fringes of British intelligence, including the statistician Roger Mexico and Pavlovian FRCS Ned Pointsman, both of whom work for "a catchall agency known as PISCES Psychological Intelligence Schemes For Expediting Surrender. Whose surrender is not made clear." (GR 34) We are also introduced to the promiscuous US Army Intelligence lieutenant named Tyrone Slothrop (GR 20), whose erratic story becomes the main plot throughout most of the novel. The paranormal reseachers and the Freudian and behavioral psychologists of PISCES soon note that each of Slothrop's sexual encounters in London precedes a V-2 rocket hit in the same place by several days (GR 49). Both Slothrop's encounters and the rocket sites match the Poisson distributions calculated by Roger Mexico (GR 85), leading into reflections on topics as broad as determinism vs. statistical inference, the lingering effects of Pavlovian conditioning and a host of symbolism associated with the rocket and its parabolic fight path, the rainbow shape made by gravity which gives the book its title.

Many characters are introduced in "Beyond the Zero" whose stories tie together later in the book, including the lovers Roger Mexico and Jessica Swanlake (GR 42), the idealistic German chemical engineer Franz Pökler and his embittered Leftist wife Leni (GR 154), Pointsman's medical colleague and friendly moral opponent Thomas Gwenhidwy (GR 169) and perhaps most significantly, Katje Borgesius (GR 92), the Dutch resistance operative who Pirate was sent to bring out of Holland by the encrypted message recovered from the premature airbust rocket (GR 71) which greeted his day in the first scene of the novel (GR 11). Katje feels morally bankrupt because she failed to give the location of rocket battery commander Captain Blicero to the Allies, where she engaged in sadomasochistic sex rituals with Captain Blicero and his catamite, the cadet Gottfried (GR 105). No longer of use to the Dutch underground, Katje allows Pirate to bring her to London and PISCES (GR 106), where Mr. Pointsman will find increasingly unsavory uses for her talents as a Mata Hari type, beginning with Tyrone Slothrop (GR 143).

Slothrop is also submitted to various psychological tests, many involving the drug Sodium Amytal. Pavlovian conditioning is a recurring topic, mostly explored through the character of Pavlovian researcher Pointsman. One of the more bizarre Pavlovian episodes involves the conditioning of octopus Grigori to respond to the girl Katje. Early in part two, the octopus attacks Katje on the beach, and Slothrop is "conveniently" at hand to rescue her. Their romance begins here, extending into Part Three and the events that follow.

In part two, "Un Perm' au Casino Hermann Goering", Slothrop is studied covertly and sent away by superiors in mysterious circumstances to the Hermann Göring casino in recently liberated France, in which almost the entirety of Part Two takes place. There he learns of a rocket, with the irregular serial number 00000 (Slothrop comments that the numbering system doesn't allow for four zeroes in one serial, let alone five), 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. Several companions suddenly disappear or re-appear after extended amounts of time, including the two guards watching Slothrop and Katje. 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. Later, the reality of this story is called into question in a similar fashion as the existence of Slothrop's original sexual exploits were. 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. In the closing of Part Two, Katje is revealed to be safe in England, enjoying a day at the beach with Roger Mexico and Jessica, as well as Pointsman, who is in charge of Slothrop's furtive supervision. While unable to contact Slothrop (or prohibited from contacting him), Katje continues to follow his actions through Pointsman.

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. Much of the plot takes place on "The Anubis", a ferry on which many different characters travel at various times. Slothrop meets and has an extended relationship with Margherita Erdman, a pornographic film actress and masochist. Originally meeting her in an abandoned studio in The Zone, it is she who leads him on to the Anubis. Here, Slothrop later also has extended encounters with her twelve-year-old daughter Bianca, though it is unclear whether or not he has stopped his casual relationship with Margherita by this time. Margherita is later shown to know a great deal more about the 00000, S-Gerät, and Imipolex G than she lets on, even having spent many days in a mysterious and ambiguously described factory and being clothed in an outfit made from the "erotic" plastic. Towards the end of this section, several characters not seen since early in the novel make a return, including Pirate Prentice, in his first appearance since the novel's very start, as well as Roger Mexico. "In The Zone" also contains the longest episode of the book, a lengthy tale of Franz Pökler, a rocket engineer unwittingly set to assist on the S-Gerät's production. The story details Pökler's annual meetings with his daughter Ilse, and his growing paranoia that Ilse is really a series of impostors sent each year to mollify him. Through this story, we find out sparse details about the S-Gerät, including that it has an approximate weight of forty-five kilograms. The story ultimately reveals that the 00000 was fired in the spring of 1945, close to the end of the war. Slothrop spends much of the time as his invented alter-ego Rocketman, who wears a white Zoot Suit and the cone of a rocket-nose. Rocketman completes various tasks for his own and others' purposes, including retrieving a large stash of hashish from the centre of the Potsdam Conference. This continues until he leaves the region for northern Germany, continuing his quest for the 00000, as well as answers to his past. It becomes steadily apparent that Slothrop is somehow connected to Dr. Laszlo Jamf, and a series of experiments performed on him as a child.

Slothrop later returns to the Anubis to find Bianca dead, a possible trigger for his impending decline. He continues his pilgrimage through northern Germany, at various stages donning the identities of a Russian colonel and mythical Pig Hero in turn, in search of more information on his childhood and the 00000. Unfortunately, he is repeatedly sidetracked until his persona fragments totally in part four, despite the efforts of some to save him. Throughout "The Counterforce", there are several brief, hallucinatory stories, of superheroes, silly Kamikaze pilots, and immortal sentient lightbulbs. These are presumed to be the product of Slothrop's finally collapsed mind. The final identification of him of any certainty is his picture on the cover of an album by obscure English band "The Fool" (another allusion to Tarot, which becomes increasingly significant), where he is credited as playing the Harmonica and Kazoo. At the same time, other characters' narratives begin to collapse as well, with some characters taking a bizarre trip through Hell, and others flying into nothingness on Zeppelins. A variety of interpretations of this fact exist, including theories that all of the involved characters have a shared consciousness, or even that the other characters are part of Slothrop's mind, and thus disintegrate along with it. Slothrop's narrative ends a surprisingly long time before the novel's end, which focuses more on the 00000, and the people associated with its construction and launch (namely Blicero, Enzian, and Gottfried, amongst others). At this point, the novel also concludes many characters' stories, including those of Mexico, Pointsman, and Pirate, leaving only the 00000.

As the novel closes, many topics are discussed by the various protagonists around the world, ranging from Tarot cards to Death itself. Towards the end of "The Counterforce", it transpires that the S-Gerät is actually a capsule crafted by Blicero to contain a human. The story of the 00000's launch is largely told in flashbacks by the narrator, while in the present Enzian is constructing and preparing its successor, the 00001 (which isn't fired within the scope of the novel), though it is unknown who is intended to be sacrificed in this model. In the flashbacks, the maniacal Captain Blicero prepares to assemble and fire the 00000, and asks Gottfried to sacrifice himself inside the rocket. He launches the rocket in a pseudo sexual act of sacrifice with his bound adolescent sex slave Gottfried captive within its S-Gerät. At the end of a final episode, told partially in second person, the rocket descends upon Britain. The text halts, in the middle of a song composed by Slothrop's ancestor, with a complete obliteration of narrative as the 00000 lands (or is about to land) on a cinema. Thus the novel opens and closes in wartime Britain, and opens and closes with the landing of a V-2 rocket.

Inaccuracies in the Plot Summary
"Slothrop meets a woman named Katje, and they fall in love, maintaining a relationship until Slothrop's sudden removal to Germany in part three."

Slothrop and Katje most decidedly do not "fall in love," as it is made quite clear that neither of these characters (for their own reasons) are capable of abandoning themselves to romantic love a la Roger Mexico and Jessica Swanlake, a couple who remain in love until the war's end. Katje, though ultimately a "good guy," believes herself to be deeply morally compromised (and has her male counterpart in Pirate Prentice) and so allows herself to be used by Mr. Pointsman in a scheme to pump information from Slothrop on the French Riviera. Their meeting involves the optically-conditioned giant Octopus Grigori, trained to attack Katje in the water so Slothrop has a chance to "rescue" her and they to "bond." They begin a sexual relationship so Katje can break down Slothrop's defenses and observe his reaction to being esposed to reams of technical data about the V-2 rocket -- hoping in this way to explain the otherwise occult ability of Slothrop's erections to "determine" where it will fall. Slothrop does become as emotionally attatched to Katje as he could to any female with whom he has sexual relations and Katje does exhibit concern for what happens to Slothrop much later in the book. It's stretching it, though, to call this affinity stemming from romantic passion.

"Several companions suddenly disappear or re-appear after extended amounts of time, including the two guards watching Slothrop and Katje."

The "two guards" are minor but significant characters, hardly to be thumbnailed as spear-carriers. General Wivern goes on to lead Operation Backfire, the British effort to reassemble and fire V-2 rockets at Cuxhaven, who, at the climax of "In The Zone," Slothrop was going to speak to off-the-record. Instead, he walks right into Pointsman's trap to have him castrated, unwittingly foiling it with great humorous appropriateness (the malignant caracature of a racist American Technical Intelligence officer Major Duane Marvy gets snipped instead). Sir Steven Dodson-Truck becomes legless-drunk in Slothrop's game of Prince of Wales and tearfully confesses to Slothrop that his erections are of highest interest to British Intelligence, causing Slothrop to flee.

"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. Later, the reality of this story is called into question in a similar fashion as the existence of Slothrop's original sexual exploits were."

The exact nature of the Infant Tyrone's penile conditioning is never made clear, but the omniscient narrator tells us that he indeed was conditioned by Prof-Dr. Jamf -- before Jamf made his career switch from psychology to polymer chemistry. The Jamf dossier Slothrop obtains from Mario Schweitar spells out the deal made with Slothrop's dad Broderick to lease his son for a behavioral experiment in exchange for a sum of money used to pay for Tyrone's Harvard education. What's rendered ambiguous -- and the narrator tells us it would've been too early for it -- is Slothrop's growing belief that this behavioral conditioning somehow involved Imipolex G.

"Katje is revealed to be safe in England, enjoying a day at the beach with Roger Mexico and Jessica, as well as Pointsman, who is in charge of Slothrop's furtive supervision. While unable to contact Slothrop (or prohibited from contacting him), Katje continues to follow his actions through Pointsman."

When Katje re-emerges, she's a member of The Counterforce, which is defined more than anything else by an opposition to everything Mr. Pointsman stands for. She's following Slothrop through Schwarzkommando leader Oberst Enzian, who she knows through their mutual sexual relations with (and "love," such as might exist, for) the book's plexus of evil, Major Weissmann/Captain Blicero. Katje's in England for the very good reason that she's still with Pointsman's program at that time, defecating into Brigardier Pudding's mouth in another twisted and horrendous scheme of Pointsman's to "sexually" gratify the coprophilic, WW I-obsessed old general (this evokes erotically-transformed memories of Passchendele) in order to keep PISCES funding flowing. Scenes like this -- and that one's barely readable -- make it hard to view a character like Katje Borgesius as being capable of anything resembling romantic love.

"Much of the plot takes place on "The Anubis", a ferry on which many different characters travel at various times."

As Shirley Temple (who figures in Slothrop's imagination) might say, "oh my goo'ness." The Anubis is not a "ferry," it's a luxury yacht owned and operated by Polish refugees from the pro-Nazi Lublin regime and stuffed full of decadent aristocrats from Axis countries. That an American protagonist in a book set during WW 2 would spend time "partying" with people like this is perhaps GR's most transgressive violation of the conventions of war fiction. There are two episodes on the Anubis, both important, and only two characters who show up elsewhere in the book, Margharita Erdmann and Miklos Thanatz. "Much" and "many" are both mischaracterizations.

"Slothrop meets and has an extended relationship with Margherita Erdman, a pornographic film actress and masochist."

Margherita Erdmann is the German equivalent of a B-movie actress who capped her so-so career by making films with the grandiose Expressionist director (with minor echoes of Fritz Lang) Gerhardt von Goll. Only one of these is pornographic, and only in the outtakes which were never shown to the public but wound up in Goebbels's private stash. It's significant because in the gang-rape scene which turned real more out of von Goll's grandiosity and Erdmann's masochistic hunger than any intent to make a porno, Erdmann's daughter Bianca was conceived.

"Through this story, we find out sparse details about the S-Gerät, including that it has an approximate weight of forty-five kilograms."

Is this the most useless statement anyone's ever seen in a plot summary, or what?

"Slothrop spends much of the time as his invented alter-ego Rocketman, who wears a white Zoot Suit and the cone of a rocket-nose."

Slothrop gets a white Zoot Suit ("A-and a sharp keychain!") from black market operator Blodgett Waxwing back in the Casino Hermann Goering days and pawns it when he gets to Zurich. The Rocketman outfit which he acquires in Berlin from Saure Bummer, Trudy and Magda, consists of pieces of looted Wagnerian opera costumes, including a helmet with the horns removed (the nosecone) and red triangles sewn onto leather pants (the fins).

"Slothrop later returns to the Anubis to find Bianca dead, a possible trigger for his impending decline."

The sexual encounter with the 12-year-old Bianca, and her death, signals the end of any pretensions Slothrop might've had to be an American innocent among all those corrupted Europeans, indicated by the harshest language Pynchon uses to describe his promiscuous ways. The epiphany Slothrop (almost) has which prefigures his slide into disintegration comes much earlier after he first arrives in Berlin, drinks from an ornamental fountain and takes sick. The internal voice says Imipolex G is no Grail and he is no knightly hero. He's playing someone else's game, an irreducibly evil game, yet he keeps on playing it anyway because he's got nothing else better to do. After that, and at least up through his rescue by Frau Gnahb to do the bidding of Gerhardt von Goll, Slothrop is presented with a series of clear choices -- all of which he chooses wrong.

Pynchon presents these choices in obscurely mythic terms, some perhaps derived from Wagnerian opera or Germanic folk tales, making reference to the Evil Hour and the White Woman with the Wonderflower. What the right choice amounts to in practical terms is to clam up about the S-Gerat and Imipolex G, which Slothrop never does. The identification of Jamf with "I" in the primal dream can only allow so much scrutiny. This is why GR has been characterized as a anti-quest novel, paradigmatically postmodern. The quest for ever-further information is presented as ultimately toxic to the existence of the protagonist.

"At the same time, other characters' narratives begin to collapse as well, with some characters taking a bizarre trip through Hell,"

This fantasy involving Pirate and Katje has nothing to do with the hallucinations which may or may not be occupying Slothrop's mind, as he knows nothing about Prentice and next to nothing about Katje's work in the Dutch Underground. Though Pirate and Katje are both members of The Counterforce now, this is a meditation on how practitioners of espionage can never be free of the guilt they live with, as their successes often come at the cost of lives and betrayal.

"...and others flying into nothingness on Zeppelins."

After 35 years of reading essays on Gravity's Rainbow, that's a new one on me.

"A variety of interpretations of this fact exist, including theories that all of the involved characters have a shared consciousness, or even that the other characters are part of Slothrop's mind, and thus disintegrate along with it."

I haven't seen this in the literature either, and it doesn't seem well-supported. The major characters: Roger and Jessica, Enzian and Tchitcherine (both of whom are extremely important and deserve mention in a plot summary), Pokler, Pointsman, Margherita and Thanatz, Geli Tripping (a minor character who conjures a touchingly non-violent resolution to Enzian and Tchitcherine's blood feud), Katje and Pirate Prentice all have their stories more-or-less wrapped up -- although perhaps not nearly as tightly as readers of more conventional novels might consider "resolved." The increasing density of fantasy or dreamlike sequences toward the end are impossible to definitively locate inside Slothrop's imagination; some, like Pernicious Pop and the Paternal Peril, appear quite Slothropian, others, like "The Story of Byron the Bulb" may be autonomous authorial invention. Yet others may partake of the drug-addled flights of fancy you'd expect from denizens of Saure Bummer's crash pad Der Platz.

There's also the possiblity that Slothrop, instead of "disintegrating" (which may also be a fourth wall-breaking trope for Pynchon's commentary on how he thinks the novel's concluding), may have also simply learned how to be silent and get along in nature, making the "past Slothrops" besieging him the vestiges of paranoia he's finally learning to let go of.

No noteworthy complaints about the final paragraph.