Gravity's Rainbow - Part 3 - Chapter 2.2: Nazis in the Woodwork

Analysis of Gravity's Rainbow, Part 3 - Chapter 2.2: Rocket Limericks, Major Marvy and Slothrop's Mittelwerke Chase

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The ghosts and the living continue to traverse the Mittelwerke, "moving, hammering, and shouting among the tunnels" (304)¹. Slothrop, as Scuffling, walks the halls himself, making his way into a vision of Rocket Girls dressing him with metallic parts and proceeding with an orgy, down into Stollen 20² where the rockets themselves were assembled on a line, and finally into Stollen 41, where final assembly took place. It is here that song begins to arise from what looks like, in the distance, a group of soldiers, American and Russian, drinking and smoking.

The Rocket Limericks that follow consist of a blending of sexuality, humor, and the intricacies of the rocket itself. While they are mostly meant for a bit of lighthearted relief, they parallel much of the chapter’s musings on the fetishization of violence and death, sexualizing and compartmentalizing the V-2 rocket. The type of song, as Slothrop would know being from an Ivy League, "is known universally among American fraternity boys," (305) the same men who, like Slothrop, would likely be recruited to help promote this fetishization.

These songs are also, unconsciously, being sung to Slothrop himself, for he is the epicenter of this fetishization. But Slothrop, unaware, like a bit of a dunce, literally falls right into their party, picturing Lyle Bland holding him right above them like a chandelier. Bland, the uncle whose deals helped sell Slothrop into sexual experimentation, would truly be the perfect person to hold him directly above this group of soldiers, singing the purpose he was destined for.

Now, the Americans are the ones chanting, but the Russians who are with them have been sitting around looking a bit glum. Remember, the Americans are specifically here to scavenge up the V-2 rocket parts and take them back home before the Russians could get ahold of them, so perhaps the Russians are not here by choice, or if they are, aren’t exactly happy about how things have gone. These Americans cannot be here without a leader though; and soon enough, Major Duane Marvy arrives on scene for what is apparently his going away party. Slothrop believed Marvy was meeting with GE — to conduct Project Hermes (3.1), AKA the scavenging effort that would lead to the development of similar American weapons to be used in the Cold War — and it is revealed that GE is exactly who is paying for this little get together.

When Major Marvy arrives, he begins to poke a little fun at the Russians’ expense until he notices Slothrop: the one other man there when Enzian threw Marvy off the train, and Marvy has a vengeance to enact. Thus begins the great chase. While Slothrop initially tries to make amends or excuses, he realizes there is no hope, so off he goes, traversing the Stollen and the halls backwards, coming across a random old man, Glimpf, who for some reason takes a liking to Slothrop and helps him escape. Glimpf is a “Professor of Mathematics of the Technische Hochschule, Darmstadt” (309). This college is the exact location which “developed the integrating accelerometer”³ — the “so-called ‘IG’ guidance” (301) system which used double integrals to assist in guidance and tracking. Clearly, he is one of the old rocket engineers; it’s no surprise that a V-2 engineer would have interest in saving Slothrop’s life from the gung-ho jingoistic American. Slothrop proves far more useful to the interests of the one than the other.

Glimpf, as they continue their escape, convinces Slothrop to insult Marvy with American idioms, of which Slothrop chooses about the most simultaneously childish and racist one as he could think up. Seems Slothrop, possessing a few traits of every American, has some of the worst ones, as well.

The Mittelwekre Express, known for taking Nazis on apparently fun little tours through the factory, and also known for providing said Nazis with tax breaks and profits innumerable (I mean, the Nazis did desire fascism for a reason, and if this isn’t it. . .), takes Slothrop and Glimpf further along the tracks through crowds of people (the living and the dead) playing and feigning their own attacks. Suddenly, a flare goes off, the fiery light of white phosphorous; it is terrifying, blinding everyone nearby, but for Slothrop, it serves as a moment of peace among the chaos. All the insanity — the symbolic and psychogeographic nature of the tunnels, the absurd chase — has calmed down for a bit of pure whiteness, obscuring the “faces and facts that have crowded his indenture to the Rocket” (312) for the past months. But the peace is lifted as quick as it came. His vision returns, the sounds of the Mittelwerke begin to rise out of the ringing, and Marvy, driving diesel and wielding akimbo .45s like the most stereotypical American one could imagine, is back and charging right for him. Slothrop (being Slothrop) has military artillery on his side, even if it was unexpected. A V-2 warhead happens to be in the cart with him and Glimpf, which he rolls off the cart and onto the tracks to stop the chasing vehicle.

When the two make it out, they take the Mercedes that Slothrop arrived in and drive through the winding, hilly forests of Nordhausen until they reach a castle atop a hill — Glimpf’s temporary residence. Glimpf, along with other control systems engineers, were housed in places like this since there was not enough room at the Mittelwerke for all of them. He was housed with a man, another scientist, named Zwitter. This scientist resides at the top of the castle — the castle on top of a hill high up in the switchbacks of mountains. To Slothrop’s surprise, given the end of the war and the liberation of Germany from the Nazis, Zwitter happens to be a free Nazi scientist, never captured; whether he simply went unfound or if he was allowed to secretly continue his work is unknown. But, in song, Slothrop imagines he is not the only one left: “OH . . . thur’s . . . / Nazis in the woodwork, / Fascists in the walls,” (314) and they’re all still here working — everywhere, most likely — readying themselves for a new, colder war.

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Next Up: Part 3, Chapter 3

1. This chapter begins a series of "Slothrop chapters" in which the first section is usually comprised of an intense philosophic or scientific musing (see last week, for an example) and where the second half is far more plot based filled with wacky humor and the like (see this post, for example). So, although there is some, we get a little break this week on the very dense analysis. It’s of my opinion that you should read these humorous section almost as fun little cartoons that lead the plot onto that next major musing where the bulk of the thematic value is held. That is not to say these sections are less important, because they are filled with necessary and often beautiful content, but Pynchon does sometimes just want you to enjoy the fun of it all.

2. The Stollen being the halls that connect the two main SS tunnels.

3. Weisenburger, Stephen. A Gravity’s Rainbow Companion: Sources and Contexts for Pynchon’s Novel. 2nd ed., University of Georgia Press, 2006, pg. 160.