Beyond the Rainbow

[kelber at mindspring.com]

I don't think the fetishization is unconscious - it seems a crucial element in the book.  The eroticization of violence, always present, exemplified by the reported Rita Hayworth pin-up on the Hiroshima bomb, must have been a contributing factor - probably the main theme - that inspired Pynchon to write the book.  I agree with Kai that the V-2 is the real protagonist of the book.  Maybe GR is the story of it's erotic awakening?

Laura


-----Original Message-----
>From: eburns at gmail.com
>Sent: Nov 2, 2011 9:33 AM
>To: Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de>, owner-pynchon-l at waste.org, pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: Beyond the Rainbow
>
>"By such an anachronism Pynchon intentionally avoids the (unconscious) 
>fetishization of destructive up-to-date technology, which might have 
>been the problem with GR."
>
>The problem!? That's the best part!!
>
>
>Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de>
>Sender: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org
>Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 14:26:55 
>To: pynchon -l<pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Beyond the Rainbow
>
>
>The problem with GR might be, that the Rocket is the novel's master 
>significant, so to speak. You could also say that inside the 
>international socio-technical network in the final days of WW II Pynchon 
>pictures, the V2 takes the role of the main protagonist. While we lose 
>Slothrop along the way, the Rocket stays with us from first to last 
>page. And although Pynchon, there's no question about this, is 
>intentionally writing furiously against the military-industrial complex, 
>the book's high level of poetic energy also results from Pynchon's 
>fascination, even obsession with destructive hightech air engineering. 
>The novel ascribes to the Rocket "a Max Weber charisma" (p. 464), but 
>for Weber charisma is strictly personal. This can, of course, be read as 
>satire, but I think those critics who spoke re GR of "the technological 
>sublime" were right. So were the readers who considered it to be a 
>'cyberpunk' manifesto. From the perspective of Pynchon 2 (the one since 
>VL), Gravity's Rainbow thus may appear to be infected by the 
>avantgarde's fascist involvement with techno-rapidity, especially in 
>Italian Futurism, which gets dissed in AtD. And that's, imo, the reason 
>the question of technology is played down in VL by making a simple 
>pistol the crucial weapon of the book. Do also note that the the balloon 
>travels of the Chums of Chance are, inside the historical timespan of 
>AtD, already a little anachronistic. New and fresh such a setting was 
>around 1800 when narrations like "Des Luftschiffers Gianozzo Seebuch" by 
>Jean Paul appeared on the market.
>By such an anachronism Pynchon intentionally avoids the (unconscious) 
>fetishization of destructive up-to-date technology, which might have 
>been the problem with GR.
>
>