Category Archives: Gravity’s Rainbow
New Year’s Rainbow
(with apologies to Thomas Pynchon, Monty Python and the Kenosha Kid) May there be no masturbators in your stacks No Trumps in your tulips No communists in your kitchen, eating your wife’s jam May the pig hero Plechazunga Drive off … Continue reading
There’s gold at the end of Gravity’s Rainbow … I think
It wasn’t pretty, but after six months of following Slothrop through the debris of post World War II Europe, I’ve finally arrived at the end of Gravity’s Rainbow. Our attempted reading group crashed and burned as members, including me, were pulled … Continue reading
Because he’s a businessman …
“But that’s just what you folks need,” Bloody Chiclitz interjects. “Get some business people in there to run it right, instead of having the government run everything. Your left hand doesn’t know what your right hand’s doing! You know that?” … Continue reading
The end-of-the-semester-head-clearing hike
As the semester grinds down, I catch myself looking intently at any stand of trees I encounter. For 16 weeks, I’ve allowed my urge to hike, bike or kayak be suppressed by teaching duties. It’s bullshit, really. I could easily … Continue reading
To only connect?
Well. What happens when paranoid meets paranoid? A crossing of solipsisms. Clearly. The two patterns create a third: a moiré, a new world of flowing shadows, interferences. . . . Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
These books I have shorn against my ruin: from hobbits to Pynchon to the Tao
In a recent Wall Street Journal Saturday essay, Will Schwalbe made the case for reading. “At the trial in which he would be sentenced to death, Socrates (as quoted by Plato) said that the unexamined life isn’t worth living,” Schwalbe … Continue reading
The West’s dumping ground
Colonies are the outhouses of the European soul, where a fellow can let his pants down and relax, enjoy the smell of his own shit. — Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
Somewhere over Gravity’s Rainbow …
I’ve tripped on Gravity’s Rainbow already. Several times. I don’t think I made it more than 100 pages in during my previous attempts. This time has been different. to some degree, I’m taking guidance from the Right Rev. Dave Shaffer (Drinking … Continue reading