Gravity's Rainbow - Part 3 - Chapter 22: Divine Retribution
Analysis of Gravity's Rainbow, Part 3 - Chapter 22: Back at Swinemünde, Raiding the Anubis, Bianca Again, Stralsund
After their narrow escape on Frau Gnahb’s boat and the loss of Närrisch at Peenemünde, Slothrop and the rest of the party arrive back at Swinemünde, where Slothrop’s first post-Anubis landing was and where he had first met von Göll. Now here, Slothrop seems to have had enough with this entire journey of his. His realizations upon the Anubis just before he was thrown off (3.18) that this entire quest for the Schwartzgerät was a quest that likely was not purely of his own doing, but was one set upon him by the Elites, has led to a further disenfranchisement from the system as a whole. On top of this, his witnessing and participation in the pedophilic sex rituals aboard the ship (3.14 & 3.15), and later, his realization of his ‘scattering’ and the other events that occurred at Peenemünde (3.20) did not help with his view of the coming world order. So, Slothrop has resorted to simply wanting to find a way out. To save himself while he could. Instead of asking von Göll to procure the Schwartzgerät as was his original intention since quite some time back, he asks for falsified honorable discharge paperwork to be sent to Cuxhaven for him to pick up, hoping he could use it to leave this entire mess behind. He just wants his life to be normal, or at least bearable, again. Von Göll agrees as long as Slothrop accompanies and assists him in a minor bit of piracy. With this agreement, “it’s out once again—out past the moles’ wet embrace, into the Baltic” (527); they are off to find the ship on which this item that von Göll needs is on.
On their way there, von Göll reassures Slothrop that they did not leave Närrisch for dead, because the Russians would not be stupid enough to kill someone with as much knowledge as he had. However, as we saw Närrisch’s final moments, this hope seems very unlikely to actually be true.
The ship that they begin approaching — the one which has the item von Göll needs — just so happens to be the Anubis. Slothrop’s paranoia is stimulated knowing that he has told von Göll about his recent travels but had never mentioned the Anubis. He mentioned to von Göll that he was with Erdmann, yes; however, he did not explicitly mention where he was with her. Could von Göll have known the entire time? Or could the crew have been recently in contact with him? Either way, it is too late to turn back; they are about to attempt an attack on the vessel of the Elite and are met with gunfire in return. Frau Gnahb rams the ship with her own, allowing Slothrop and von Göll to board with Otto’s assistance. It sounds absurd given the symbolism surrounding the Anubis and its riders that this measly group could infiltrate them so easily and with so little resistance.
Slothrop makes his way down into the engine room where Procalowski told von Göll that his ‘package’ was. On his way, he hears voices leading him downward, telling him where to go, even shutting off the lights and assaulting Slothrop numerous times. It could potentially be Morituri as many people including Slothrop hypothesize, which would make sense given he is still the objective observer of historical events, and he knows that Slothrop has committed a sin that would likely doom the Earth. However, the voice is also meant to represent a form of divine retribution — not God or any other god per se, but some mystical and unseen force that exists within the world which is bent on forcing Slothrop to witness what he has done. He is hit, pauses, is pinched, kicked, and finally reaches the bottom where he is locked in the hatch until he has done what he has to do. And the voice does not only mean completing von Göll’s retrieval task, but facing the sin has committed. For as he gropes around in the dark, he realizes, as his hand touches the stiff dress and as he notices the smells of sea and shit are mixed with her perfume, that it is Bianca’s corpse. He now knows that it was reality, not a vision, when he saw her purposefully plummet to her death. His actions, and his unwillingness to save what could have been saved — her innocence or even the concept of youth as a whole — has now led to her death via suicide. It is just as Pökler had failed to save Ilse because of his own horrible desires; here we are again with history’s unending cycle. Slothrop, when the lights turn back on, finds the package he came for, but refuses to even look at Bianca — refuses to fully acknowledge who it is or to acknowledge what he has done. Since Slothrop is meant to represent us in a sense, it is our refusal to acknowledge that this act is a condemnation of us as well, knowing that we, having lost (or having never even had) any true individuality, have sought a place among the Elite no matter the stakes. No, our actions or ideologies are not as serious as what Slothrop had done, but nearly everyone has participated or advocated for something that Their empire has forced upon the masses in the hopes that we could rise to Their heights. And often we will never look ourselves in the eyes to admit what we have or had once done. Instead, we will continue on with our current plan, see the horrors in our periphery, and climb back up our ladder toward a more tolerable, forgiving light.
But before we leave these depths, another smell was down there with Slothrop — one in which he refused to name: “and the smell of . . . of . . .” (531). Given the package was so near when he smelled it, and given there is something he has smelled before that caused similar horror, it is likely that the object which Slothrop was gathering for von Göll was made of Imipolex G. It is probably not the Schwartzgerät for reasons to be discussed later, but it is yet another form of plastic rendered flesh. These new age technologies and materials are what the black market will come to deal in.
Somehow, when Slothrop gets back, the group escapes with no issues. Those on the boat do not pursue them nor did any of the Elite seem intent on preventing them from completing their task since that first bit of gunfire. Von Göll, being a black marketeer of the more nefarious variety, was likely in cahoots with the Elites from the get-go, but things needed to seem a bit more tenuous for the rest of the party to buy into this raid. Or, the Elite, as they always have, wanted to make sure they looked like they dealt only with the highest quality people and that they made their wealth purely through legal means. Thus, they needed to make a bit of a ‘fight’ at first so that no gossip would spread about their dealings with criminals such as von Göll. Either way, they had made their way out and are now headed to disembark in Stralsund: a small town on the Baltic Coast in the North of Germany, about 75 miles/120 kilometers (give or take), west of Swinemünde. Slothrop realizes this is bringing him closer to Cuxhaven (from Stralsund, he would be about 250 miles or 400 kilometers east-ish of Cuxhaven) and so asks von Göll if he can ensure the honorable discharge paperwork could be sent there in time. Von Göll cannot assure anything but will try.
In the end, they get off at Stralsund, and say their goodbyes, events of the Anubis forgotten — or, in Slothrop’s case, pushed aside in an attempted repression. He walks off into the night.
Up Next: Part 3, Chapter 23