Review of Gravity's Rainbow, Domination, and Freedom
Kai Frederik Lorentzen
lorentzen at hotmail.de
Tue Aug 19 06:30:21 CDT 2014
> The ‘Freedom’ section is particularly innovative, focusing on the
socio-political implications of the novel’s presentation of ‘tarot
readings, astrological divinations, fantasist surrogacy, trance
speaking, spirit possession, and out of body journeys’ (166). Herman and
Weisenburger claim that these aspects embody three core features of
Pynchon’s novel: ‘a persistent suggestion that models for
intersubjective communication and solidarity may exist outside
routinized channels [...] the very apersonality and non-intentionality
of the divinatory process of non-Western societies might have something
to teach first world people [and, finally] people might also learn from
[...] acausal, nondeterminist, and recursive ways of knowing what it is
right and just to do’ (166).<
Hm. Ain't this an exoticist projection? Although astrology has
Babylonian roots and although the tarot probably came with the Gypsies,
both have been for centuries part of the Western tradition. When some
Afro-Caribbean and, later, Native American religions picked up the
tarot, they took it from the West, not vice versa. And while "trance
speaking" and "spirit possession" - where is that in Gravity's Rainbow?
- can indeed be connected to "non-Western societies", it must be said
that these were, just like "out of body journeys", always known in
Europa, too. From the historical witches to the Order of the Golden
Dawn: Geli and "Mr. A.E. Waite" (p. 738) are certainly not members of
"non-Western societies". Do we learn anything about the Herero culture's
"non-intentionality of the divinatory process"? Can't remember, but it
might be there. What I'm sure about is that, in Gravity's Rainbow (for
Pynchon II the case might be a little different), spiritual techniques
like those mentioned are neither in the first place non-Western (except
for the I-Ching, p. 746), nor - and that's perhaps even more relevant
for the concept of 'freedom' Herman and Weisenburger go for! -
necessarily good, let alone that they teach "what is right". Actually
these techniques are essentially interwoven into the deadly rocket
gnosticism: It's the lift-off of the final rocket where most of the
tarot (and kabbala) references can be found. "A-and if you don't think
there are Marxist-Leninist magicians around, well /you/ better think
/again/!" (p. 748). So not even the anti-religious furor of
Marxism-Leninism makes it immune against the use of spiritual
techniques, since they might prove valid by success. A similar logic is
working at the White Visitation. The mingling of magical and
polit-economical rationality becomes most obvious in the spooky seance
scene - and here it is where we indeed have trance speaking and spirit
possession! - where leading folks from IG Farben invoke the spirit of
Walter Rathenau who then speaks from the Other Side: "'You are off on a
winding and difficult road, which you conceive to be wide and straight,
an Autobahn you can travel at your ease. Is it of any use for me to tell
you that all you believe real is illusion? I don't know whether you'll
listen, or ignore it. You only want to know about your path, your
Autobahn./'All right, Mauve: that's in the pattern. The invention of
mauve, the coming to your level of the color mauve. Are you listening,
Generaldirektor?'/'I am listening, Herr Rathenau,' replies Smaragd of IG
Farben./'Tyrian purple, alizarin and indigo, other coal-tar dyes are
here, but the important one is mauve. (...) Then the discovery of
Oneirine. Ask your man Wimpe. Look into the clinical effects of the
drug. I don't know. (...) There is a link to the United States. A link
to Russia. Why do you think von Maltzan and I saw the Rapallo treaty
through? I was necessary to move to the east. Wimpe can tell you. Wimpe,
the V-Mann, was always there. Why do you think we wanted Krupp to sell
them agricultural machinery so badly? It was also part of the process.
At the time I didn't understand it as clearly as I do now.'" (pp.
165-166). This is not about freedom or humanism, is it? The
non-scientific origin of the technique does not at all guarantee a
non-corporatist output. It's all business!
On 18.08.2014 18:11, Dave Monroe wrote:
> Thanks, Martin Eve!
>
> https://pynchon.net/owap/article/view/114
>
> http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/gravitys_rainbow_domination_and_freedom
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20140819/9a34f674/attachment.html>
More information about the Pynchon-l
mailing list