NP: Gravity's Rainbow re-read

[Paul Mackin]

On Mar 18, 2006, at 3:41 PM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

> I'm on my first re-read of GR, and made a connection I hadn't made  
> on the first go-round: In the Kenosha Kid sequence,  Crutchfield  
> the Westwardman [sending his rockets westward?] and his Pard,  
> Whappo, Afro-Scandinavian are Slothrop's precognition of Weissmann  
> and Enzian/Gottfried.  Not sure what "the only one"  means in this  
> context.  "Only one fight, one victory, one loss."  Anyone have any  
> insights into this, or know of any good articles or essays that  
> discuss this part of the KK seaquence?
>
> Laura


It's a comical riff on the ancient philosophical quest for Unity in  
an infinitely diverse reality.  It's called the problem of the one  
and the many.

Slothrop (Pynchon) doesn't succeed in finding a complete oneness, but  
only a oneness of each kind of thing.