Tabbi: Pynchon's Psychology of Engineers

[jbor at bigpond.com]

One of the classic critical essays on _GR_:

'"Strung Into the Apollonian Dream": Pynchon's Psychology of Engineers'
by Joseph Tabbi, _Novel: A Forum on Fiction_ 25.2, Winter 92, pp. 
160-180.	
Abstract:
Examines the related, yet contrasting, symbolism in Pynchon's book 
_Gravity's Rainbow_. It is a novel famous for its treatment of science 
and technology, with many references to tarot cards, witchcraft and 
primitive religion. Technical images; Rocket, the most dramatic symbol, 
embodies immortal dreams and aspirations of an entire generation; 
Technology becomes a means of unifying the psyche.

Begins:
It is a curious fact that _Gravity's Rainbow_, a novel famous for its 
treatment of science and technology, should include amid all its 
technical detail so much that is dreamlike, spiritualistic, or in some 
other way "non-scientific." For every equation or popularization of 
science cited in the text, there are again as many references to tarot 
cards, witchcraft, and primitive religion, while more often than not 
Pynchon's most complex technical excursions are embedded within dreams, 
hallucinations, or psychic transactions among the living and the dead. 
The book's central symbol--the rocket--might be described equally by 
mandalas as by ballistics, and that unimaginable corporate 
totality--the Firm--seems to employ as many psychics as scientists. To 
the reader looking to sort out the significance of Pynchon's many 
technological metaphors, analogies, and images, this is all very 
disconcerting. One can try to ignore the extraneous details, but sooner 
or later the most single-minded investigator into the novel's 
technological material must be "thrown back," like Tyrone Slothrop at 
the height of his quest, "on dreams, psychic flashes, omens, 
cryptographies, drug epistemologies, all dancing on a ground of terror, 
contradiction, absurdity" (p. 582). [...]

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