Re Geli Tripping

[Breytenbach, C T]

Does anybody on the list have any thoughts on the pretty young witch
tripping gaily through Tchitcherine's and Slothrop's lives, Geli
Tripping? Especially her name? "Tripping" is obvious, but could Pynchon
have chosen "Geli" as some sort of reference to Adolf Hitler's niece,
Geli Raubal? GR (mmm...) was AH's widowed half-sister's daughter. He
lived with his half-sister and niece in 1927, and started an affair with
Geli even though he was 38 and she only nineteen. GR is said to have
been an intense woman who coped well with AH's chauvinism and possessive
jealousy. She died mysteriously in 1931, aged 23. Her body was found in
the Munich apartment that she shared with AH, having been shot with AH's
revolver. There has been speculation that she was murdered by AH's
supporters in order to break her influence over him; it has also been
suggested that AH approved of the hit.

Kerneels Breytenbach