Gravity's Rainbow

had to go put my synopsis and review in a whole ass separate blogpost because I reached the character limit in my "backend" of Google Sheets smh.

overall:

To call Pynchon an R-rated Vonnegut would be to discredit both authors, but that’s an accessible point of comparison – they share an affinity for the absurd on top of a backdrop of the coldly dispassionate Eastern theater of WWII. Gravity’s Rainbow like Slaughterhouse 5 and even moreso Cryptonomicon is just as intensely highbrow as it is lowbrow.  Another analogy that captures the reading experience is that Pynchon is similar to Tarantino in that he has a vision in mind, but doesn’t care if you don’t follow – he’s here to make art goddamnit, and you can either buckle in, or gtfo.  This epic detailing investigation of the German V2 rockets during WWII falls firmly within the complex/complex quadrant of the Punnette story telling matrix.  It’s hard to even pin down what makes it good other than “Pynchon,” and by that same mark my only real critique is that his tone overwhelms most of the personality we might get from his characters. All the characters are just more or less going about their lives, primarily concerned with getting their nuts off rather than their fears (with a few notable exceptions).

Dude, where’s my sopwith camel. One of the funnier books I’ve ever read, with repeat characters from V. including: Piggy Bodine, Mondaugen, Bloody Chiclitz. Pynchon loves his songs too!

Pynchon took a class taught by Nobokov in the 50s, and though that's not exactly grounds for a budding relationship, the influence is certainly pleasant, and it's cool to know that they met.

I: Beyond the Zero – 8.25

This part, opening with a quote from Werner von Braun, "Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death.” is concerned with life after death. Seances, legacy, dreams, fantasy abound amidst the hellstorm of V2 rockets and wartorn Europe:

• British Private “Pirate” Prentice is a special agent of sorts for the Special Operations Executive (SOE/The Firm) tasked with tracking and investigating V2 rockets. He has some kind of prescient foresight that allows him to experience other peoples’ dreams and fantasies, hence his membership on the team, stationed in London which is constantly getting bombed.

• Tyrone Slothrop – where to even start with this guy. An American soldier who keeps a map of girls that he’s slept with which perfectly matches the locations of V2 rocket targets. Crucially, his map foretells the location of the next strike. He gets a woody and that area turns to rubble shortly after. Simultaneously the horniest character, and the only one who seems really scared of the V2 rockets. Everyone is probably scared, but he’s the only one who’s fear is actually narrated.

• Teddy Bloat (friend of Pirate’s, also at the Firm) spies on Slothrop, and sees his map.

Prentice is instructed to go find a message contained in the most recent V2 strike he witnesses from his apartment where the opening scene takes place.  Slothrop, also tracking the missiles, observes Prentice retrieve said message from a graphite canister at the crash site.

• Jeremy Beaver (named after his beard) is a high ranking British official who is dating Jessica Swanlake

• Roger Mexico is a statistician who is in love with/having an affair with Jessica Swanlake. He’s also involved in a culty arm of the British military for psychological warfare called PISCES or  “White Visitation” (named for the insane asylum they use for their headquarters) who research the self-guided nature of the V2 rockets via seance to summon German scientists who worked on it.

• Pointsman and Dr. Spectro - Pavlovian researchers for White Visitation

Roger and Jessica meetup with some other White Visitationers (Pointsman and Spectro) who are interested in Slothrop’s map/seeming ability to predict (physiologically, orgasmically)  the targets of upcoming V2 strikes. They also try to catch a dog for Pointsman’s experiments, Spectro suggest a different animal, maybe an Octopus.

• Grigori - Pointsman’s octopus

We learn more about Slothrop, his penis, and his character during a therapy session held by PISCES. He’s drugged/hypnotized and recounts his story of Roxbury and the Negros which consisted of a debaucherous evening at a jazz club in Boston where he dropped his harmonica in the shitter, and has to go in after it leaving his buttocks exposed (much to his dread) to the black patrons of the club (one of whom goes on to become Malcom X????!!!). Slothrups a racist homophone, and dives deeper into the plumbing to escape what he views to be his imminent sodomization.  This account is extracted in the service of PISCES mission to exploit white racial unrest within Germany, but they quickly become more interested in his V2 prediction abilities. Maybe it has something to do with his being experimented on as an infant by another Pavlovian who was interested in measuring his erections (funny, but vile).

• Osbie Feel - biiiig mushroom guy, friend of Pirate’s. Kind of a creep. Gives footage of Katje to Pointsman who then shows the footage to Grigori (the octopus).

• Gottfried - “Hansel“

• Katje - “Gretel.“ British RAF spy.

• Captain Blicero – Nazi in charge of testing V2 rockets in Namibia/Southern Africa. Vile

• Enzian – Blicero’s Hereroan (Namibian) catamite

The letter Prentice received is obviously written in invisible ink that can only be revealed with semen. The letter also came with a photograph of his ex lover to facilitate the revelation of the letter’s contents. Back at his apartment, we learn about some of his SOE compadres and others couch surfing at his crib including an aspiring fungal psychonaut who crafts some wicked blue meanies, as well as a dutch woman who escaped German captivity at the hands of Blicero who forced her and another young Nazi solder to do unspeakable things. You can read em yourself in subsection 14 of Part I.

• Darlene – Nurse who cared for Slothrop at St. Veronica’s

After Slothrop’s therapy session he bumps into a nurse who cared for him earlier who he promptly bangs. The block is bombed by V2 later that night. Darlene is paranoid that someone is watching them

Roger continues to worry about the tenability of his affair with Jessica. Similarly, Jessica compares her options weighing the excitement Roger offers vs. the stability of Beaver.

White Visitation is struck by a rocket (who’s been nutting in here?!). Pointsman learns that Spectro was killed in the blast and wonder how many more scientists, Pavlovian, will die in this stupid war. He hopes to win the Nobel by way of Slothrop (and his penis) somehow.

• Carrol Eventyr, the psychic from the White Visitation seance where Roger and Jessica are introduced

• Gavin Trefoil – a freek who can change the color of his skin

• Captain. St. Blaise, RAF pilot who claims to seen an angel in the sky after a bombing run on Lübeck

• Peter Sachsa - German psychic

• Weissman (White Man) - associated with Blicero

Eventyr, after complaining about the freaks that’ve been showing up on their door step as of late (like Trefoil), summons the spirit Peter Sachsa, who in turn recalls a seance he performed with Weissman (who’s affiliation with Blicero is known).

• Leni & Ilse, German woman (friend of Peter’s) and her daughter who are staying with student revolutionaries protesting the Weimar Republic

• Franz Pökler – Leni’s ex, a German rocket scientist, worked under Weissman

• Karl Mondaugen – the same Kurt Mondaugen from V.

Leni, running on fumes and worried for her baby Ilse, goes Peter to ask for some help. While visiting Peter, some Nazis roll up to demand a seance with Walter Rathenau, a former Jewish German official who aided Germany’s efforts in WWI.

Back in the present day, Pointsman discusses more theories about rockets with the last remaining Pavlovian: Gwenhidwy, who suspects that German’s are targeting poorer neighborhoods (higher birth rates).

Finally, Roger is visiting Jessica, takes her sibling to see a local performance of “Hansel and Gretel” (lol), which is interrupted by a V2 strike nearby. Roger and Jessica mutually, independently realize they can’t go on with one another.

II: Un Perm’ Au Casino Hermann Goering 8.5/10

• Tantivy Mucker-Maffick: member of SOE(?) associated with Teddy

• Dr. Purkevich – PISCES researcher who owes Pointsman a favor

At the Hermann Goering Casino in France, Slothrop, Teddy Bloat, and Tantivy are chillin at the beach when none other than Grigori!!! shows up and snatches Katje (who is unbeknownst to Slothrop and Tantivy). Slothrup tries to free her, battling the octopus with a broken wine bottle, but is unsuccessful til Bloat offers him a crab to distract Grigori with. Grigori escapes to a ship manned by another PISCES researcher, Dr. Purkevich.

Having saved the damsel in distress, Slothrop beds Katje, repeatedly. Whilst making honeymooners love under a table cloth, someone breaks into Katie’s apartment and makes off with Slothrop’s clothes and everything else too. He gives chase, clothing himself in some purple linens he snatches from a housekeeping cart, climbs up a tree that the purloiner escaped within, only to realize that he’s been had. He falls from the tree into the middle of Bloat’s croquet game, who promptly takes him back to his room where he sees that all of Slothrop’s possessions have indeed been burgled.

Slothrop borrows a British uniform from Bloat which lands him in trouble for accidentally doing stolen valor / looking like a spy.

• Sir Stephen Dodson-Truck - a mysterious and suspicious fellow who approaches Slothrop to talk about V2 research

Slothrop gets Dodston-Truck good and drunk to get him to spill the beans on why he’s taken an interest in him/V2 rockets all of the sudden. Stephen lets slip that he was put up to observing Slothrop by “them” (the same “them” that left the note for Prentice in the V2 from earlier in part I?). Lucky Stephen was chosen because he won’t get distracted by Slothrop's boners because he’s impotent and therefore impartial?

• Sammy Hilbert-Spaess - another PISCES spy (E1-ass name btw)

Eventyr conducts another seance with Hilbert-Spaess, summoning Peter Sascha once more who recounts his final days before dying at the hands of the police at a rally.  In his final moments, he has Beyond Zero realization (humans are the only species with knowledge of their mortality or something like that). All the while, Hilbert-Spaess is shiftily concerned about “them” being displeased with Eventyr’s investigations of Peter’s death. If “they” are the jews, I’m deducting points, but there have been some signals…

Slothrop is in the dog house with Katje because he blew the experimental observations that Stephen was conducting.  Katje is still clearly a spy for “them”/PISCES, but that doesn’t stop Slothrop and his member. He awake to Katie’s absence, he’s now all alone.

Pointsman stresses out about PISCES imminent funding cuts with German surrender looming around the corner. More Beyond Zero commentary as lab rats discuss the freedom they possess relative to their human counterparts, despite the fact that they live to run a maze.

• Domina Nocturna: poo poo stinky dominatrix

Then there’s the Pudding scene… Pudding is a masochistically traumatized WWI vet who can only find pleasure in being abused. He goes down some tunnel beneath White Visi to find Domina Nocturna who beats him, and then does some water & mud sports with him which he enjoys waaaay too much. I think this scene exists to clarify that PISCES are effectively as bad as Nazi scientists.

Eventyr channels some more German scientists who worked on rockets.

• Hillary Bounce - a new fair weather friend (spy spy spy) of Slothrop’s. Worked for Shell petroleum

• Michele – Slothrop’s hot friend

• Raoul de Perlimpinpin – Slothrop’s rich friend

Slothrop, becoming increasingly paranoid in light of the sudden unexplained absence of Katje and Dodson-Truck, continues to study V2 manuals and keeps getting boners. He learns that the A4 (German name for V2) relies on an insulation system called Imipolex G. Slothrop asks Bounce about it, who deflects.  Slothrop gets a lady friend to seduce Bounce to find out what he’s hiding in his room where he claims he’ll contact “headquarters” to ask about IG. Lo and behold, Bounce worked for IG Farben, who manufactures Imipolex G. Slothrop naturally decides to go turn up at a party at his rich friends villa.

• Blodgett Waxwing - dude in a ganster suit who’s clearly following Slothrop to/at Perlimpinpin’s party. Owes money to Tamara through a convoluted series of trades

• Tamara - owns a Panzer tank

Everyone at the party gets dosed with hashish that was snuck into one of the dishes. Waxwing introduces himself to Slothrop as a deserter-turned-smuggler, and asks Slothrop to hold some dough for him. Slothrop only agrees if Waxwing will give him a zoot suit like the one he’s wearing (Waxwing discusses the zoot suit riots of ’43. Tamara crashes the party with her tank, demanding her money. She fires a shell through the villa causing some wreckage which Slothrop saves her from (he’s a knight in shining armor). Waxwing points out the oddity of these two incidents and volunteer the name of a man in Nice who can help Slothrop.

• Dr. Jamf - developed Imipolex G at IG Farben.

• S-Gerät - the rocket with serial No. 00000  which contained IG

Slothrop learns of Tantivy’s death via a eulogy authored by Bloat in the London Times. He becomes more paranoid that “they” are going to get him next (Tantivy was suspicious about the whole Grigori incident, probably a loose end that needed to be tied up).

• Ian Scuffling - Slothrop’s new identity

• Semyavin - Waxwing’s Swiss connection who tells Slothrop that he’s in need of the economy of information which is exchanged in cafe’s these days

• Mario Schweiter - drug dealer, learned to synthesize at Psychochemie AG (subsidiary of IG Farben)

In Nice, Slothrop gets a fake passport from Waxwing’s connects, and departs for Zurich. Whilst making his way to a cafe (at indirect suggestion from Semyavin), Schweiter tries to sell him LSD, and when asked about Jamf, tells Slothrop that Jamf is buried in Zurich. More info than that is gonna cost Slothrop though, and so he has to pawn his zoot suit.

• Squalidozzi - Argentinian revolutionary

Walking back from the pawn shop to the cafe, paranoid Slothrop ducks into another cafe to lose his tail (a Rolls Royce he suspects is following him) where he’s invited to dinner by Squalidozzi, the exiled revolutionary. Squalidozzi regales Slothrop with boasts of how he’s rebuilding his movement in Germany, stealing a U-boat etc. Squalidozzi needs to get a message to Geneva, but is also paranoid about being followed. Good Guy Slothrop tells him he can get the message to Geneva if Squalidozzi can pay. Slothrop delivers a letter to Geneva and gets back the same day (they say Mario is still waiting in that cafe to tell Slothrop more about Jamf).

Back in Zurich, Slothrop waits at Jam’s grave for Squalidozzi to give him coin. Eventually someone does bring him his payment for couriering at which point Slothrop returns to Schweiter for dirt and Jamf – Schweiter gives him the name of an SS contractor by the name of Franz Pökler.

Back at White Visi, Pointsman tries to rally morale despite the war being over. With slimmer and slimmer funding, Pointsman relied on the Secret Service (SS!) to keep monitor Slothrop’s planned escape from the casino, but you just can’t trust anyone to do a good job these days. The SS studies Slothrop’s map and struggles to find any trace of the women he’s bedded.

curiously, throughout this part, though Slothrop gets busy doing what they do on the discovery channel with Katje numerous times, there are few V2 strikes…

Part III: Into the Zone: 8

Similar to The Part about the Crimes from 2666, it's hard to slap a singular numeric value to this many pages of book. About half the book (by page count and plot) exists in this part

• Lyle Bland (conveniently forgettable name) - childhood friend of Slothrop’s from back in MA. Board member of Slothrop’s family’s paper company, as well as a contributor to Germany’s reconstruction after WWI

Disguised as Scuffling (with a sick-ass mustache), Slothrop departs Zurich for Nordhausen to investigate Imipolex G. He arrives at Mettlewerk which seems like a Geonosian Droid factory in search of Pökler. He also keeps an eye out for Bland. Digging further into Schweiter’s dossier on Nordhausen/Pökler/Bland, he learns that his own father dealt with Bland and Jamf to sell young Slothrop to IG Farben in exchange for his Harvard tuition (hence Slothrop’s foggy recollection of his past). This realization triggers some sort of synesthesia effect on Slothrop which causes him to smell Imipolex G about him.

• Major Marvy - American intelligence officer who has theories about the Hereroans working as V2 technicians

• Oberst Enzian, former Schwartzkommando (the same Enzian catamite of Captain Blicero’s)

On a cable care to Mettlewerk, Slothrop runs into Major Marvy who begins a racist monologue about how the Herero are going to rise up now that they’re out of jobs working for the now-defeated Germans. Enzian, also on the cable car, defenestrates Marvy.

• Tchitcherine - Russian intelligence officer, half-brother of Enzian (their father, while stationed in Southern Africa, birthed him off a Herero woman who he then abandoned)

• Geli Trippling - a groupie of Tchitcherine’s

Whilst exploring Mettlewerk, Slothrop overhears Trippling singing. She explains her relation to Tchitcherine, and then Slothrop beds her. During the pillow talk, she tells him about the Schwartzgerält rocket she’s learned about by reading Tchitcherine’s mail. The rocket (00000) is being sold by someone in Swinemünde, Poland.

• Etzel Ölsch - architect of the Mettlewerk

• Glimf - mathematician who helps Slothrop escape the Mettlewerk

• Zwitter - Nazi roommate of Glimf’s at their Der Eisendrache castle

At the Mettlewerk, the factory is being liberated by Americans. Slothrop mozies around, observing the oafish Americans who are casting lots on the souvenirs and daydreams about Ölsch and his fetish for parabolic arches and ’S S’ shaped tunnels. Near the A4/V2 assembly line (also parabolic, cue the double integral reasoning monologue), Slothrop finds a party unfolding for Major Marvy (survived). Marvy, displeased with Slothrop’s complicity in his attempted murder at Enzian’s hands earlier, dispatches some soldiers after Slothrop who gives chase. Slothrop narrowly escapes in style in a Mercedes with the help of Glimf back to his mountain castle abode.

Enzian, the “Nguarorerve” leader of the restless Herero –who are now suicidal beneath the ground– recounts his Herero origins, his family’s slaughter at the hands of the German’s, and his salvation at the mercy of the German Weissman saved him, loved him, and gave him “like Jesus” new purpose in The Rocket :tm:. With the war now over, he plans on building a new, African rocket in the abandoned Volkswagen factory in Hamburg.  He leaves to scout it out, wary of being discovered by Tchitcherine.

• Schnorp - friend of Trippling, balloonist (hot air, not party city).

Slothrop, horny Slothrop, sneaks out of Glimf’s castle to sneaky link with Trippling who introduces him to her friend Schnorp who will help extradite him to Berlin. Whilst fleeing via hot air balloon, Slothrop is pursued by plane by none other than Marvy. Slothrop throws motherfucking custard pies at them and they escape into the clouds.

• Wempe - pharmacist for IG Farben, friend of Tchitcherine

Tchetcherine meanders the Zone (DMZ once held by the Nazis), pondering his past teaching Russian in Kyrgyzstan, falling in love with an important woman resulting in his exile to Central Asia, where he befriends a chemist: Wempe. We learn more about Tchitcherine’s relation to Enzian (father fathered a child by a Herero woman while stationed in near Herero).

• Emil Säure Bummer - german stoner

• Magda and Trudi - Bummer’s babes

• Seaman Bodine (Pig Bodine!!! from V.)

(these characters comprise the cast of Cheech and Chong and Dude Where’s my Sopwith Camel)

Slothrop arrives in Berlin and is sick from the water there. He recalls meeting Enzian once before Marvy’s attempted murder while investigating a V2 blast site. Both were interested in rocket 00000. After recuperating, he’s naturally led by scent to Bummer. After getting good and high, they head to a bar and meet PIGGY MF BODINE. AWOL AS EVER. Bodine has a lot of hashish stowed away somewhere in Potsdam, but can’t get it due to Russian intelligence. Slothrop of course agrees to retrieve it for him (he’s the king of side quests) in exchange for 1 kilo for himself. He then bangs Magda back at Bummer’s (no V2 rockets nearby).

• Max Schlepzig - another fake identity for Slothrop to use to get the dope from Potsdam

Slothrop sneaks into Potsdamn via canal, under the nose of Tchetcherine, recovers Bodine’s hash, and finds an American outpost codenamed “The White House” where President Truman happens to be chatting with Mickey Rooney.  Before leaving The White House, Slothrop is kidnapped.

• Gerhardt von Göll (aka Der Springer) - movie producer

Squalidozzi and his crew are submerged in their commandeered U-boat, hiding out with Blodgett Waxwing (also AWOL) from British Intelligence who’s been on his tail ever since his encounter with Slothrop. Waxwing (ever connected) introduces Squalidozzi to his movie producer friend who will help with his revolutionary efforts if he can shoot film on/of his U-boat. But the U-boat comes under attack by non other than Pig Bodine aboard the USS John E. Badass, hopped up on some synthetic nonsense at the hands of Jamf which gives Bodine bullet time.

• Dzajabev - Tchitcherine’s sidekick

Slothrop, having been kidnapped by Tchitcherine and his sidekick, gets his Hashish stolen by them as “payment for his life.” after they determined that he was also in search of the Schwartzgerält, just like Tchitcherine’s half-brother Enzian. They’re not sure who Slothrop works for (he works for his penis and whoever most recently asked him to do them a favor)

• Margherita Erdmann - ex B-list movie star, used to film erotica with one Max Schlepzig

He awakens in a movie theater in Neubabelsberg, still dressed in his absurd Rocketman costume from his night out with Emil Säure Bummer. He is saddened by the loss of some of, but not all, his hashish (Tchitcherine’s not some kind of monster). He encounters a hasbeen movie actress Margherita who is searching for her daughter Bianca. She reminisces on her costar Schlepzig, Slothrop produces his ID, one thing leads to another aaaaand ….

Franz Pökler steps out of a theater, having just viewed an erotic film starring Margherita, musing that this is the film that resulted in the birth of his daughter: Ilse.  He enters a lengthy flashback starting with explanation how his focus on German rockets made relations with his anti-war wife difficult, his involvement with Weissman and Enzian. Flashing forward (in the flashback) to the 30s when Ilse asks him about the rockets which he lies to her about taking her to the moon. She disappears and reappears throughout his life, and he grows suspicious that she has been swapped out by the SS to spy on him for Weissman so he can be dealt with when he’s no longer useful. Polker gets phased out of importance after his base in Peenemünde is bombed by the British, he’s now in charge of procuring insulation (at orders from Weissman) for a new, top-secret rocket project: the Schwartzgerält. As American’s  close in on Nordhaussen, Pökler and his team flee. He’s given an envelope from Weissman informing him about Ilse’s whereabouts, telling him to meet her at the amusement park where he first started suspecting her of being an SS double. Instead of going there, to Zwölfkinder, he goes to Dora where he witnesses the concentration camps and is distraught – he gives a woman his ring.

If he must curse Weissmann, then he must also curse himself. Weissmann's cruelty was no less resourceful than Pökler's own engineering skill, the gift of Daedalus that allowed him to put as much labyrinth as required between himself and the inconveniences of caring. They had sold him convenience, so much of it, all on credit, and now They were collecting.

Margherita takes Slothrop to a crackhouse in the Russian-occupied sector of Berlin where he questions what “Their” intentions are with him. He sneaks out to rendezvous with Bummer for some hashish relief – Bummer is hiding out at another friend’s place though, which he communicates to Slothrop via joint roll tucked away in a cow skull.

• Gustav – musical composer

Slothrup finds Bummer and Trudi hanging out at Gustav’s – they argue about the musical talents of Beethoven and Rossini. MPs show up and bust the party, Slothrop escapes, naturally. When he returns to the crackhouse, Margherita is upset with him for abandoning her. She provokes Slothrop who lashes out (which is precisely what she wants) and he performs sadomasochistic violence on her.

This part ends with a weird daydream of Slothrops’s involving a woman who engages in beastial acts and is impregnated by all sorts of creatures.  She births many exotic animals.

• Horst Achtfaden - aerodynamics engineer on the Schwartzgerält

• Klaus Närrish - guidance systems engineer on the Schwartzgerält

We find Achtfaden being interrogated by Enzian and his Schwartzkommando – he volunteers the name of Klaus.

• Stefania - wife of Anubis’ captain

• Niklos Thanatz - Margherita’s husband (notably, NOT the father of Bianca)

Slothrop and Margherita continue their search for Bianca, and leave Berlin for Swinemünde aboard an orgy yacht called the Anubis. Stefania informs Slothrop that Bianca’s father is unknown since she was conceived during an orgy scene (filmed by Schlepzig. Slothrop overhears chatter about Margherita’s addiction to another one of Dr. Jamf’s drugs. Slothrop also encounters Thanatz who claims to have seen the Schwartzgerält in person, recalling Blicero’s terror and his assistant Gottfried (poor, poor Gretelian Gottfried). Bianca is brought on stage during the yacht orgy to perform a lewd rendition of some Shirley Temple songs.

• Ensign Morituri - ex-propagandist for Japan, failed kamikaze school personality test (lmao)

• Sigmund - Margerhita’s first husband (notably, also NOT the father of Bianca)

Slothrop beds Bianca (mother and daughter, this guy is out of control). He’s spied on by Morituri who introduces himself, and clues Slothrop into how much of a freak “Gerri” is. Whilst studying axis war films in Berlin, Morituri was employed by Sigmund (Margerhita’s husband at the time) to spy on her since he suspected her of cheating. Whilst trailing her, he discovered that she was the feared Shekhinah who was infamous for kidnapping and murdering young men. Morituri saves the young man from her grips, but is ever fearful of Margerhita’s residual wrath. Slothrop goes to find Bianca who rushed out when she learned they were being spied on by their nippiness observer, but Stefania interrupts his search to let him know that Margherita has locked herself in the bathroom where Slothrop finds her, weeping over he delusion that Slothrop is the reincarnation of one of the men/boys she drowned in the mudbaths.

• Drohne - plastics engineer on the Schwartzgerält, worked on Imipolex G

Margherita regail Slothrop now with stories from her past, including her and Thanatz’s introduction to Blicero who had them over for dinner (with Gottfried) to attend a seance during which he addressed her as Katje! Drohne dresses her in a kinky outfit made of IG which triggers her. During the seance, she astral projects to an abandoned tower where she participates in an orgy with other IG-clad attendees. She wakes up naked and alone…

• Procakowski - Polish officer, steering Anubis, worried about a storm that might steer them towards German outposts

After getting that earful from Margherita, Slothrop continues to search for her daughter, musing about possible connections between Schwartzgerält and “Them.”  He thinks he sees Bianca jumping ship, but before he can save her, he’s honked out and truly tossed overboard.

• Frau Gnahb - German smuggler a fishing boat, saves Slothrop

• Otto - Gnahb’s son

• Gerhardt van Göll - AKA Der Springer, AKA Max Schlepzig

Gnahb and Otto save Slothrop and ferry him to Swinemünde. On the way, he asks if they’ve hear of Der Springer. Of course they have, and they introduce them. He’s hanging out with Närrish. They’re planning on heading north Peenëmunde. Slothrop asks if that’s because they think it’s where Schwartzgerält is located, which causes them to think Slothrop’s a British spy. Göll bails him out, saying that rumors of Schwartzgerält being at Peenëmunde is him honeypotting Tchitcherine.

• Major Zhdaev - Russian officer, arrests the Peenëmunde party

As soon as they arrive, they find Peenëmunde has been ransacked by Russians, and are promptly arrested by Zhdaev. The gang escapes via diversion caused by the chimps used by the circus that was acting as a front for the illicit cargo. They leave via railcar and plan to return for Göll who didn’t make it. They do return immediately and cause a distraction to bust him out. On their way out of the camp, they come across Zhdaev and Tchitcherine – Slothrop gets payback for when Tchitcherine stole his hash and robs them at gunpoint, donning their uniforms as well (very low-key and discreet).

• Hilde - circus performer, helps the escape

As the party escape for Gnahb’s boat, Närrish provides covering fire and stays behind to fight his own way back to Peenëmunde, vision of A4’s dancing through his head.

• Christian, Andreas, and Pavel - Schwartzkommandos

• Ombindi - leader of some remaining sect of Hereroans

Enzian, Christian, and Andreas search for Christian’s sister to stop her from getting an abortion. At the makeshift clinic, they just find bloody rags and fear they’re too late. They depart on motorcycle and come across some bombed out ruins that contains some unsullied machinery, kicking of Enzian’s paranoid conspiracy that the Axis and Allied powers were governed by some unifying cabal that sought to preserve technology throughout the war. This would explain weird patterns of ruins & surviving wreckage throughout The Zone. He gets the idea that there’s some sacred text to explain the patterns and seeks out Ombindi’s contact in St. Pauli for info on such a text. Christian beats the shit out of Pavel (misguided rage about his sister) who huffs gasoline and hallucinates some monsters near the refinery.

Aboard Gnahb’s boat, Slothrop argues with Göll about abandoning Närrish. Närrish will be fine, he’s a rocket scientist who’s too smart to kill. They near the Anubis, and this time Göll needs help stealing a package. Slothrop (slut for a side quest) agrees in exchange for his army discharge papers. Göll says sure, knowing they’re not gonna find em. Just as soon as Slothrop boards, he’s attacked again by another unknown character. He flees deeper within the ship where he does find Göll’s package, as well as Bianca’s corpse, sad! Göll congratulates Slothrop for the heist upon his safe return to Gnahb’s boat, and Slothrop leaves the party ASAP at the next port they pass by.

Brigadier Pudding has died of E. Coli (wonder why). Pointsman is vying for continued research funding, and Katje is left alone at White Visitation where she finds the film that Osbie Feel took of her and Slothrop way back in the beginning which he used to train Grigori. The film ends with a reading of Feel’s screenplay which contains a secret message telling her to get out of dodge/PISCES/White Visi. She goes searching for Prentice, she finds Feel at his apartment instead who takes her to a back room strewn with Pepe Silvia plans and documents regarding IG Farben, the Herero, and the Schwartzgerältof. Feel recruits her to Prentice’s counterforce before getting super psychonautically high.

• St. Just Grossout, Sammy Hilbert-Strauss, Jeremiah “Merciful” Evans - members of the counterforce

Prentice walks to the church called “The Devil’s Advocate,” – his headquarters for the Counterforce.  Pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place as Dodson-Truck and other members of the counterforce start to trickle in. They shoot the shit about just what force it is they’re countering, leading Prentice to believe that none of them can be trusted. Katje arrives to save Prentice from his depressive spiral and asks to join – they share a conversation about how to love the people.

• Ludwig - fat kid, lost his lemming, also a drifter

• Ursula - Ludwig's lost lemming

• William Slothrop - pig rancher, ancestor of Tyrone’s

• girl wearing mink, easily mistakable for being a pet lemming

Slothrop becomes a drifter amongst drifters. He dreams of Tantivy and asks if he’s their to protect him – Apparition Tantivy replies “Not you.” Slothrop passes though farmlands and apologizes to the trees for his family’s paper business. He stumbles upon a refugee camp and help (side quest) a boy find his pet lemming. While rooting around, he muses on his family’s past, how the first American Slothrop got exiled from the MA Bay Colony for authoring a book about how Judas was the savior of those passed over by God. Ludwig snags a girl, mistaking her cape for his lemming, and she invites he and Slothrop to attend church (Michaeliskirche) with her. None other than Major Marvy is there, but he doesn’t recognize Slothrop because of his Russian uniform (he’s dressed as Tchitcherine, but Marvy apparently doesn’t notice).

“Dear Mom, I put a couple people in Hell today…” -a fragment of the Gospel of Thomas

• Old Bloody Chiclitz - associate of Major Marvy, helps run the fur trade out of Michaeliskirche

Marvy, Chiclitz, and Slothrop (no longer being pursued by Marvy) leave Michaeliskirche to checkout an abandoned German battery site, looking for traces of A4. Upon arrival they find it’s been raided already by the Schwartzkommandos. Slothrop convinces some Americans that he’s just a Ruski hunting Hereros, and gets them to point him in the direction of Schwartzkommandos. Lost in the narrative sauce, he tries to stay focused on his mission to find a link between the rocket, IG, his penis, and Dr. Jamf. He gets jumped by Andreas who takes him back to the Schwartzkommando base where they exchange notes on the Schwartzgerältof.

Närrish is captured by Tchitcherine and interrogated (Achtfaden and he have now been interrogated by both brothers, between the two of em I bet the know something) – he reveals (guidance expertise) that the V2 had an inbound radio control, but no outbound link and extra O2 line running to an empty chamber within.  Tchitcherine wonders about propulsion mechanisms and the lack of German engineers for that purpose. Marvy and Chiclitz rendezvous with Tchitcherine (they’re buddies now per an agreement regarding intelligence exchange for weaponry).  Mutually, they dislike the Schwartzkommando (racistly so, even).

• Pleachazunga - large pig, said to belong to Thor, which delivered the village from viking invasion 1000 years ago

Slothrop has left the Zone party in search of his discharge papers. He starts daydreaming some more (dangerous for a lackadaisical guy like him). He’s stopped outside a small German town by a group of boys who invite him to participate in their festival for Pleachazunga. Slothrop, once Rocketman, now dons the pig costume (William Slothrop would be proud) and participates in a reenactment of Pleachazunga’s deliverance. Russian MPs break up the fun, and Slothrop escapes with a little girl who informs him that there’s a warrant out for his arrest since he’s believed to be a Russian deserter. The Russians continue to search for him going door to door, and the girl helps him escape, begging him to let her join him. He promises to return for her (when she’s 18 or something like that no doubt), and awakens to a pig licking his face. The pig is now his sidekick (Piggy Bodine’s petronus) and they lift some eggs from a nearby farm only to be chased off by the angry owner. The pig leads him to the Baltic where he meets Pökler who he IDs as someone who worked on Imipolex G – Pökler gets sidetracked talking about Ilse. He mentions Jamf briefly, only describing him as an academic colleague who left to work for Lyle Bland where he invented Imipolex G.

Hand and glove, more like penis and mouth

in reference to the FBI and other agencies. Apparently J. Edgar Hoover has been in Europe following WWII doing ~something with Namibians.

• Alfonso Tracy - associate of Bland’s

• Silver-Streaking Bert Fibel - Bland’s electronics wiz, a fellow freemason. Worked for Horst Achtfaden on the Schwartzgerältof before expatriating to work for GE, also subcontracted by IG Farben to observe Slothrop (Jamf’s experimentation)

Turns out Lyle’s a real piece of shit who used psychological studies to exploit depression-era masses and do market suppression. After WWI, he acquired some German patents authored by Jamf himself as well as Glitherius Paint & Dye (parent company of the contracting firm Pökler worked for) and Ufa which distributed Göll’s films. Pökler got blamed for GP&D’s arsony who fired him and brought on Tracy to reorg and rebrand in petrochemical research. Bland convinces Tracy to join his syndication by recommending his electrician, Fibel, to him. Bland is made a Mason for bringing on Tracy (who himself is a Mason - funny, that). Bland becomes increasingly ritualistic and eventually fades off into the aether.

• Muffage and Spontoon, pair of doctors in Cuxhaven, where Slothrop suspects his discharge papers might be, tasked with finding Slothrop – working for Pointsman

• General Wivern - commander of Muffage and Spontoon

• Albert Krypton - shipmate of the U.S.S. John E. Badass, selling opiates

• Birdbury - Krypton’s pharmacist

• St. John Bladdery and Stringy Avery Purfle - other crew from the U.S.S. John E. Badass, participating in a spoon fight with one another

• Shirley - driver of a Red Cross truck which Slothrop uses to escape

• Solange - prostitute at the brothel manor called Putzi’s

• Möllner - accomplice of Göll, who ought to have Slothrop’s papers, but does not

Whilst looking for Slothrop, Muffage and Spontoon pass by a group of illegally-happy American soldiers (Bodine and Krypton). We transition to Krypton’s POV as he goes to meetup with his pharmacist, in who’s office is Slothrop, the famed Rocketman. MPs burst in (as they have a way of doing. It’s so tropey but it literally does not matter), and Krypton helps Slothrop escape back to Bodine who is promoting the title fight between Bladdery and Purfle. The MPs keep chasing though, breaking up the spoon fight. Slothrop, Krypton, and Piggy escape via Red Cross Truck with Muffage and Spontoon trailing close behind. Slothrop is taken to the brothel manor in search of Der Springer (why? we don’t know or care – oh yeah, his discharge papers). He pouts in a closet until Bodine fixes him up with Solange. On the way to a private area, Slothrop scores some coke from Major Marvy who’s down at the casino floor of the brothel manor. They all head down to the steamy baths, but more MPs show up – Marvy (coke noided) has to hurry up and get dressed, but all he can find is a pig costume. Naturally, Muffage and Spontoon capture him instead of Slothrop during the ensuing raid and sedated past the point of explanation. Muffage and Spontoon castrate him (??? was Pointsman ordered to castrate Slothrop???) Slothrop, unphased by the MP raid, beds “Solange,” who turns out to be Leni. They both muse over their missing children (Bianca and Ilse, respectively, though it’s super weird for Slothrop to become paternalistically fond of Bianca now). Bodine searches for Slothrop’s papers to no avail.

This scene is hilarious. Piggy calls the red cross woman a cunt and then Krypton teaches her how to snort coke properly.

Tchitcherine, having left the ransacked Peenëmunde, continues north to Holland in search of the Schwartzgerältof which has also been ransacked by the Schwartzkommandos. He’s enraged by the obvious presence of a mole that aids the Rocket-cartel counterforcing him at every step of the way.

• Clive Mossmoon and Marcus Scammony - Pointsman’s superiors

Pointsman (funding not secured) is demoted for his miscastration of Major Marvy) and now is in charge of dealing with a town in the Zone which is overrun with dogs (once a dog catcher always a dog catcher). His bosses discuss what to do with Slothrop since operation Blackwing (Slothrop was supposed to destroy the black race apparently) failed.  They decide to let him keep mozying about Germany. No V2 rockets for awhile now – I guess that has more to do with Germany’s downfall than Slothrop’s cardio.

Part IV: The Counterforce: 7.75

Prentice liberates a P-47 and flies to Berlin while members of the counterforce mobilize to Marseilles and Zurich.

Slothrop, middle of nowhere, joins a traveling orchestra playing a harp he finds in a river. He bides his time, contemplating his return to America. He becomes increasingly paranoid about "Them" stopping him as he nears the answer to the Jamf mystery and what the hell :tm: is going on.

• Josef Schleim - IG Farben statistician

Schleim tells Mexico that Slothrop has been being studied since well before the war began. He steals a car and makes for Cuxhaven in search of Slothrop. Mexico is breaking bad, Jessica is through with him (for which he blames Pointsman). He shows up at a PISCES location and pisses all over a meeting room with his soon-to-be-ex-superiors

• Jan Otytyumbo - Schwartzkommando liason

Dejected, he goes to find Prentice (I thought he was supposed to be in Berlin, but Mexico finds him at his flat). Prentice condescends Roger's naive paranoia, telling him that he needs to develop a "We-system" rather than a "They." He ropes Mexico into the Counterforce. Gwenhidny has already joined, so that's at least one familiar face.

• Eddie Pensiero - PFC, barber, amphetamine enthusiast, vibration guru
• Paddy McGonigle - private, handcranks a lightbulb for Eddie to give a haircut to their colonel

A loud explosion interrupts Pensiero cut for the colonel. He daydreams a dialog, between one Skippy and one Mr. Information, regarding how war separates the wheat from the chaff. These two characters discuss Pain City and Happyville, where Dr. Jamf (for some reason?) lives with robots. Clearly roided out of his mind, Pensiero makes up a whole backstory for the lightbulb McGonigle is cranking: "The Story of Byron the Bulb." Byron is a perfect bulb, lasting far longer than his lifespan of planned obsolescence, and becomes paranoid about a plot to have him smashed. He's rescued by Bulbsnatchers, and their plot to resist Phoebus (an international lightbulb cartel operated by GE). Pensiero blacks back in to fantasies about killed the colonel, thinking that that will restore order.

Katje, cycling alone through the Zone to deliver a message on behalf of the Counterforce, encounters the Scwartzkommando and discusses her and Enzian's relationships with Blicero with the latter. They team up, planning to use Katje as bait to bring out Slothrop. Enzian explains the scope of the Schwartzkommando network in the Zone and promises to show Katje a V2 rocket, she interrupts to say, "and all of this can be yours if you will it" (referencing the Devil's temptation of Christ) to which Enzian response "negative, wrong story.'

Thanatz, having gone overboard the Anubis, is rescued by a crazy Polish undertaker who is trying to get struck by lightning Ben Franklin style to imbue himself help the families of the bereaved connect with their loved ones or something (more themes about Beyond the Zero). What the propaganda pamphlet that convinced the Polish undertaker to bioshock himself with neglected to say was that BF was a Mason, which gave him an ear for practical jokes, of which the United States might have been one. Together, they come across an encampment of homosexual prisoners ("175s") released from the Dora concentration camp. They have their own Pepe Silvia scheme about the SS chain of command which they believe is headed by Blicero.

Thanatz continues alone, wandering amidst other displaced peoples ("the preterite," passed over by God). He gets caught up by the Schwartzkommando and interrogated. He reveals some Schwartzgerält secrets, and in turn learns that the Hereroan resistance has assembled their own V2 rocket salvaged piecemeal from abandoned/liberated bomb sites. Enzian prepares to launch the rocket.

Pynchon loves his vignettes and –though the whole novel is nothing but– the last few sections of the fourth and final part of the novel are some rapid fire (and titled!) scenes.

• Low Frequency Listener: Slothrop tries to contact Squalidozzi and his U-boat but can't remember why.
• Mom Slothrop's Letter to Ambassador Kennedy: Exactly what it sounds like. Mother is worried about a Plan (capitalized, like They/Them) endangering her son
• On the Phrase "Ass Backwards": Slothrop, Bodine, Säure (a new iteration of the Sick Crew) argue over German/American idiosyncrasies. Bodine has a strategically-placed whistle lodged in his asshole to augment his musical renditions.
• My Doper's Cadenza: Slothrop composes his own cadenza to rival Säure annoying violin.
• Shit 'n Shinola: The sick crew continues debates about asinine phrases
• An Incident in the Transvestite's Toilet: Slothrop imagines the same club where Malcom X bullies him in the bathroom. This time he's crossdressing when an ape enters the bathroom and gives him a lit ACME-type bomb. Luckily a transvestite throws the bomb in the toilet where it explodes
• A Moment of Fun with Takeshi and Ichizo, The Komical Kamikazes: A peek into the lives of two kamikaze pilots who become participants in a gameshow about the authentic lives of Japanese soldiers.
• Streets: Slothrop wanders the Zone and sees a chaplain reading a newspaper with an image of a phallic mushroom cloud and an army pinup girl straddling a tank
• Listen to the Toilet: paranoid musing by the Kenosha Kid on Them
• Witty Repartee: Ichizo scars Takeshi with a gatling gun while he's bathing – this segues into a brief history of the firearm and its roll in various conflicts
• Heart-to-Hear, Man-to-Man: A dialog between young Slothrop and his father, Broderick, about the latest "drug" the kids are doing: shooting electricity into their skulls. Broderick tries to riff with his son, talking about reefer, but it comes across badly
• Some Characteristics of Imipolex G: description about IG which is "erectile" (can be stiffened via various stimuli including video projection!!)

Back to the main (if it even exists) narrative–

• Wimple - zone drug dealer
• Ripov - communist intelligence agent

Tchitcherine wanders the zone alone since Dzabajev has abandoned him to become a Sinatra performer. He meets Wimple who gives Tchitcherine some of the fictitious psychedelic: Onerine (developed by Jamf, ofc). Wimple warns him about it's haunting effects. Tchitcherine proceeds to take it and be haunted by a KGB (?) officer who pressures Tchitcherine to reign in his pursuit of Enzian. Naturally, Tchitcherine freaks out and tries to escape - but is caught by Ripov and his little squad.

A few remaining members of PISCES/the Counterforce (Mexico, Morituri, Eventyr and Gwenhidwy) assemble in Cuxhaven to determine where the 00000 rocket will be fired.

Mexico begs Jessica to take him back, despite her efforts to start a family with Beaver (pathetic!). Beaver tries to appease him befriending him and inviting him to a fancy dinner with a plus one. Mexico shows up with Bodine (uh oh) in a zoot suit (uh oh x2) and describes the food disgustingly enough that most of the guests start puking. This, surprisingly, does not win over Jessica who flees in tears. Bodine and Mexico leave with the band who's primary instrument were Kazoo's (vestiges of Byron the Bulb lore sprinkled in somehow).

Trippling searches the zone for Tchitcherine. She does some witchy stuff to talk to nature and has a yogi moment about humanity's crimes against nature. Blicero, independently, shares her sentiment, and reasons himself into a desire for immortality so that he can live with Gottfried forever.

Enzian oversees the completion of the Schwartzkommando's 00001 rocket and muses about metaphorical significance of rockets. On their way back to their base with a piece needed for the 00001, they find a man in blackface and a dead comrade. The men become restless about the ambush and opposition to their efforts. Enzian decides to split up and send decoy parts elsewhere while they bring the real rocket to the launch site.

Trippling finds Tchitcherine and bewitches him to be blind to all but himself. They make love under a bridge and are woken by Enzian's rocket convoy. Neither man recognizes the other.

Thanatz and Ludwig discuss sadomasochism.

Word of Slothrop and his penis precede him throughout the Zone. We overhear discussions of Slothrop's Jamf connection being a fabrication to cover for his fetish for the destruction of life brought about by V2s.

More final vignettes close out the novel:

• The Occupation of Mingeborough: things continue to chug along in MA, despite Slothrop's absence
• Back in Der Platz: Gustav and André smoke dope above a movie theater playing von Göll's latest film called New Dope. It draws a cult following of displaced peoples from across the Zone
• Weissmann’s Tarot: exactly what it sounds like
• The Last Green and Magenta: Very brief scene describing the pleasant Spring season at Lüneberg Health where the Schwartzkommando have rendezvous'd to launch the 00001
• The Horse: a horse stands in a field. Brief history about Germanic sacrifice of horses in the age of the Roman empire
• Isaac: Abraham, about to sacrifice his son, Isaac, resists all temptation and sees the throne of God.
• Pre-Launch: Gottfried gets dressed up like a sacrificial lamb in the womb of the 00000
• Chase Music: Pointsman is a basically a middle management crash out now (he kinda evil fr fr)
• Countdown: A metaphorical countdown begins, ushering in the birth of a new world from the root of the tree of life centered at the launch site.
• Strung Into the Apollonian Dream: poor Gottfried here's chatter in his earpiece from the proverbial Houston (Houstonstein) and smells IG
• Orpheus Puts Down Harp: The owner of the Orpheum theater (Zhlubb) is interviewed by a reporter about the kazoo players who have been interrupting his movie nights.
• The Clearing: Blicero muses over all that he should have told Gottfried during their last night together as he prepares to fire the rocket
• Ascent: Gottfried experiences weightlessness at the apex (Brennschluss) of his flight
• Descent: An audience calls for the movie to begin, but it's been stopped for some reason. The rocket falls a mi/s, but there's still time for a final preterite kazoo song.