Gravity's Rainbow - Part 3 - Chapter 0: A Canvas for a New World
Gravity's Rainbow Analysis: The Title and Epigraph of Part 3, In the Zone
Part 3: In the Zone
In William S. Burroughs’ novel Naked Lunch1, he introduces the Interzone, a tract of country free from law, where the differentiation between the living and the dead become blurred. This Zone is where Slothrop will enter and spend his time in throughout the course of Part 3. The parallels in the title are apparent both in that In the Zone is clearly an assonance to In-ter-zone, and in that it is structurally similar to Part 1’s Beyond the Zero, the first word being a preposition, the second being obvious enough, and the third beginning with a Z. This assonance and equating Zero with Zone (knowing that Zero is a reference to the dividing line between life and death) proves we will be entering a similar Zone to what Burroughs predicted in Naked Lunch and a number of his future novels.
The Zone has its differences though. In Gravity’s Rainbow, it is post-War Germany (being a representation of the post-WWII world as a whole), the stagnant world that does not know exactly what to do with itself now that things are over. But the people who have manipulated this world into being have their own plans. Walther Rathenau predicted a synthesis with images of growing smoke stacks bringing oil to the forefront of the world (1.19), corporations have begun merging to hide and empower their more nefarious doings (2.7), information has become the ideal commodity (2.7) which could give power to the more tangible ones, and the middle men (those below Them such as Mexico, Pointsman, and the rest of PISCES) are now being thrown out because they know too much (2.8). They have used these pieces to wipe Germany, and the world, clean — to build a more marketable, profitable world that They can thrive in. As Slothrop traverses these landscapes searching for the S-Gerät, he will observe Their new coming world, a Fourth Reich, that will eventually be perfected in the 60s, and we will observe the last reaches of his freedom, and the freedom of that which he represents.
The Epigraph:
Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas any more. . . .
— Dorothy, arriving in Oz
The line is spoken after Dorothy and her dog, Toto, have been swept up in a storm and dropped off in a mysterious new world. Its use in the epigraph reinforces the idea of the Interzone in the title, but hints that Slothrop, now entering the Interzone/Oz did not arrive here of his own true volition. There was a storm that picked him up and placed him here — the storm being the constant pressure Pointsman and The White Visitation has placed on him from behind. While he was allowed to ‘escape’ from the Casino Hermann Goering, he was only allowed to do so under the hidden pretense that he would be followed, leading to his paranoia that would cause his further flight into the Zone. And now that he has reached it, he believes that he must find a certain object, the S-Gerät (just as Dorothy had to seek the Wizard of Oz), in order to return home. But whatever may be behind the curtain, whichever entity he seeks, is controlled by other beings that he cannot imagine — beings molding this new world to fit their own intentions.
Short one this week as usual for the Title/Epigraph posts, so hopefully this serves as a nice break for everyone. Special thanks to anyone who is reading this a week ahead via the new paid subscription perk!
Up Next: Part 3, Chapter 1
Which is genuinely a must read if you have not. Burroughs writes on themes quite similar to Pynchon, though in a more on-the-ground and linguistically experimental approach. Check out Naked Lunch and his Nova Trilogy.