Turier: Octopus Grigori & Katje

[jbor at bigpond.com]

Nice little 1992 essay (pdf) which discusses the influences of both the 
tradition of Japanese erotica known as "tentacle rape" and British 
research into arthropod brain functioning in the '50s and '60s on 
Pynchon's representation of Katje and Grigori in GR:

'Pynchon's _Gravity's Rainbow_'
by Christine Turier, _Explicator_ 50.4, Summer 1992, pp. 244-6.	
Abstract: Makes observations concerning the bizarreness of the image of 
the octopus Grigori's attack on Katje in Thomas Pynchon's novel 
_Gravity's Rainbow_. The eroticism implied in this scene; speculation 
as to whether Katje is truly afraid or she is knowing and willing 
participant in the attack; additional points of literary evidence.

best