narrative structure in GR

[Terrance]

"m." wrote:
> 
> Can anyone point me in the direction of a good explanation of the Narrative
> Structure in Gravity's Rainbow? I am not interested in a Plot Summary or a
> Chapter interpretation, as each of these ultimately leads to a less fruitful
> reading of the novel.
> 
> Any help would be immensely appreciated.

Not sure what you mean by narrative structure, but Steven Weisenburger's
Companion discovers and discusses the chronological design, that is, 

"It is plotted like a mandala, its quadrents carefully marked by
Christian feast days
that happen to coincide, in 1944-45, with the key historical dates and
ancient pagan festivals. The implications of this design are several,
and wonderfully complex." 

Introduction page 9-10

Interestingly enough, the climax of the book centers on Easter Sunday --
the
focal point of a nine-month parabola -- although these events are not
actually
revealed until the end. While these temporal nodes provide a grounding
of sorts,
three other important organizing principles may be found in the various
systems
of the Jewish Qabalah, the Tarot and its imagery and symbolism, and in
the idea
of the hero monomyth. These three deserve some further elaboration. 


http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_granalysis.html

There are several other books and a few very good dissertations on GR's
structure, but I can't think of them just now. I hope these two help. If
you are interested in the others let me know and I'll dig them up. 

A Friday Sail Will Always Fail.