Anubis and the Odessey

[Lycidas at worldnet.att.net]

ROSSFRYE25 at aol.com wrote:
> 
> Is the any correlation between Slothrop's trip on the Anubis and Homer's "the
> Odessey"--it's been a while since I've read either, so I could be quite of
> base.
> 
>     curiously,
>         A.


Well we certainly have a lot of ships here and a whole
bunch  of allusions to  voyages. The "In the Zone" section
opens with Dorothy's voyage, then Homer and Dante, then
Conrad and on and on.  I don't know if there is any
correlation between Slothrop's trips on the Anubis and
Homer's Odyssey.  Homer's Odyssey is alluded to in the first
paragraph of "In the Zone", compare with BK. 11. Lines
14-25, Fitzgerald Translation. Of course the allusion is
complicated in typical Pynchonian (can we say Pynchonian?)
fashion. Typically Pynchon's allusions are mixed and merged,
cross disciplines--science and religion, for example, and
are often extended and combined with other allusions to
form  complex (often parodic) metaphors. This is what the
first chapter of GR promised--the knotting into or the
intricate meshing of reciprocities, ironic correspondences,
outrageous doublings, sustained paradoxical dialectic
tensions-- often relieved with song or humor. In the case of
Homer, Dante and Conrad, the allusions are very complicated
because Pynchon is setting up the "In the Zone" section. 
Pynchon often alludes to Odyssey BK. 12, particularly the
passage through Skylla and Kharybdis--the scientist's "yaw
control." In this case the allusion is a double irony. 


For the Anubis, obviously The Book of the Dead is
referenced. Paul noted the ubiquity of Wagner's works in
these chapters, but I think that Dante may be more important
to this section. I'm trying to figure it out, and maybe it
will prove only a Stencilized project, but I think it's
worth my time. 

What I think really interesting, not really discussed here
much, is Pynchon's use of American experimental cinema,
particularly, German film--the "foreign invasion" as it was
called, a German invasion, that Pynchon makes extensive use
of in GR. 

Gerhardt von Goll, once an intimate and still equal of Lang,
Pabst, Lubitsch GR.112