Gravity's Rainbow - Part 3 - Chapter 23: The People Assemble
Analysis of Gravity's Rainbow, Part 3 - Chapter 23: Brigadier Pudding's Conclusion, Katje Finds Osbie Feel's Film, the Beginning of the Counterforce
We abandon Slothrop for a moment at the climax of his story. We have seen his ‘introduction’ as he worked for ACHTUNG and kept his map of women (1.3). His ‘rising action’ was extensive, covering him being interrogated and wandering in London through the entirety of Part 1, at the Hotel Hermann Goering and in Zürich in Part 2, and his search for the Schwarzgerät in the Zone throughout the first twenty or so chapters of Part 3. And his ‘climax’ included the rescue at Peenemünde, the raid on the Anubis, and his realization of his ‘scattering’ between 3.20 and 3.22. So, before his ‘falling action’ throughout the rest of Part 3 and his ‘conclusion’ within Part 4, we return to some of the characters who we started this journey with for the next couple of chapters. Obviously this is a touch reductive given Gravity’s Rainbow’s ‘plot structure’ doesn’t really follow tradition1 at all, but I do believe it is still applicable to some extent and that it is interesting that just as we see Slothrop/America give into purely evil desires and give up the hope of finding answers to the world’s destruction, we come back to see an alternate train of thought within the characters we have left behind.
After a song calling back to mind the Tannhauser myth which had paralleled Slothrop’s journey, we learn that “Brigadier Pudding died back in the middle of June of a massive E. coli infection” (533). When we had last seen Pudding quite some time ago (2.4), Pointsman was organizing a nightly routine in which Pudding would move through a symbolic descent to hell, following a symbolically perverted version of Jewish mysticism, which would conclude in his literal consumption of Domina Nocturna’s piss and shit — Domina Nocturna being Katje Borgesius in disguise as a dominatrix. There were many reasons for this, though the main one to focus on is Pointsman and associates (them being the ‘new’ form of warfare and psychological operations) subjugating the ‘old guard,’ namely, Brigadier Pudding (since he was a leader in the first World War) by tapping into his now deep psychological need for the smell of death. This psychological need allows the older generations to be brainwashed into seeing and advocating for wholly new and evil forms of warfare.
Pudding’s subjugation took a turn in the middle of June, and now the ‘old guard’ has died. It is no coincidence that the middle of June would have been right around when Slothrop was first entering the Zone, signifying that his search for the Schwarzgerät was likely doomed from the start. While Slothrop was doing this to discover something about himself, it was a wholly selfish journey that was not in any way dedicated to actually saving the world from its coming doom — thus, the evolution from a warfare that was evil but at least comprehensible (Pudding) to one that can no longer be comprehended (Pointsman and Them).
Katje (our Point of View in this chapter) has stayed at the White Visitation. After Slothrop was lost, PISCES, and thus both the White Visitation and Pointman’s major project, began to be divvied off to other groups (2.8) likely so that They could control these new processes better. But, for some reason, Katje did not immediately leave. Even Pointsman himself was redistributed to Twelfth House: a branch of PISCES that would work out of a London office as opposed to the White Visitation (2.8). Though, in London, under Their observation and control, it does not sound as if his reign was as free as it was out in the country. Instead, he was simply “lingering at alcoholic luncheons with his various industrialists” (533) — just another scientist with dreams of the Nobel whose evil intentions were tapped into by those truly in power and then discarded once They had gotten what They needed. But Katje, again, remained. She could not tell if she was free.
Webley Silvernail left behind some ‘carelessly stacked’ cans of film which Katje found. Silvernail has been seen a few times. First, he was the scientist who showed the film of Katje Borgesius (the one that Osbie Feel recorded when he found Katje looking around at Pirate Prentice’s flat) to Grigori (1.12), thus conditioning Grigori to desire Katje which would lead to its attempted capture of her at the Casino Hermann Goering (2.1). He was also seen early on in the same chapter as Pudding’s subjugation (2.4) when he realized that the rats he was helping test were smaller versions of what was happening to the world and to people like him — descending forms of experimentation and control. Finally, during Morituri’s story (3.16) we learned that Erdmann’s ‘caretaker,’ Rollo Groast, worked at ARF, a research facility at the White Visitation, with Silvernail. So, while Silvernail is a very minor character within the novel, his importance is in the fact that his apparent unimportance has far reaching tendrils — showing the film to Grigori could be seen as an inciting event (even the inciting event) to Slothrop’s journey, and his association with Groast shows that those he worked with had impacts on people who he would never even meet. The web is infinitely entangled, almost impossible to decipher, because of all the major and minor parts that are entwined.
In that stack of film cans, she finds one which she puts on a projector. It is the same film that Osbie Feel had recorded which Silvernail showed to Grigori along with subsequent clips of Grigori being conditioned to her appearance. But that is not it; at the end of this film is tacked on “what seems to be a screen test of Osbie Feel […] entitled, Doper’s Greed” (533-534).2 It is not the entitled film itself, but Osbie Feel reciting his ideas for the said possible film. The plot goes as such: Basil Rathbone and S. Z. (‘Cuddles’) Sakall walk into a town where a Midget stands guard. They discuss the possibility of the existence of this Midget, Basil saying he could not exist while Sakall says he does. They eventually shoot at the Midget, leading him to run off and disappear. The Midget is played by an actor who starred in the film Freaks (1932) which calls to mind the ‘Freaks at the Visitation,’ namely, those members of PISCES who had ‘special abilities’ led by Nora Dodson-Truck (largely discussed and explored in 1.18). This character/plot (as is realized by Katje after she sees that this entire film is a coded message left by Osbie Feel himself, knowing she would find and interpret it) represents the disappearance of the original plot that was set out by the White Visitation which left Sakall (i.e. Pointsman) in a trough, and Rathbone (i.e. Osbie Feel) smiling in some sort of realization. In summary, first of all, the ‘freaks’ (i.e. the Preterite) have escaped, and while they are still being targeted, they are alive and safe for now. Secondly, Pointsman (AKA those evil men who have been conned into transforming Their nefarious desires into actual death) has ‘fallen into the trough’ and is paralyzed and stalled for a brief moment in the present. And finally, those who were aligned with Sakall/Pointsman such as Rathbone/Feel have been granted this brief but important opportunity to sever that tie — to act and hopefully cause a meaningful change in the world.
Katje sees this message, interprets it, and leaves the White Visitation for good, pondering on what may have happened to Pirate since they had last seen each other. When she arrives at the flat in which both her ‘introduction’ began and where the novel itself began, she sees Osbie Feel, a needle just taken out of his arm, gleaming and giddy at the fact that she had gotten the message. He says that he wishes he could have made the message more obvious, but given They are likely watching all possible angles that could lead to a revolution, the message needed to be as hidden and layered as he could make it. Osbie also replies to her question: stating that Pirate Prentice is still alive and well and that he is simply “‘Out scouting up some transportation’” (536).
There is vast significance that Pirate is scouting this ‘transportation’ paired with Katje seeing the literature and refuse scattered around the flat: “maps, schedules, An Introduction to Modern Herero, corporate histories, spools of recording wire” (536). Is it a coming revolution? We have maps and schedules signifying the planning of something’s ‘taking.’ There is the book An Introduction to Modern Herero, signifying the education and realization of true oppression, genocide, subjugation, and a reason for fighting back. And then there are ‘corporate histories,’ which finally show what They have achieved through their means of oppression: profit, power, safety for only themselves, even happiness and comfort for only themselves . . . and so Katje wonders, “Is this what she thinks it is?” She has always envisioned that something like this would occur, just as those who have come to the same realization of our oppression have envisioned — that “some counterforce would have had to arise” (536). And this might be it. Our last chance of fighting back — saving our world, the Zone, the canvas, whatever you may want to call it, from turning into a Wasteland, so that They may live out the last moments of life on Earth in comfort.
Slothrop, however you may feel about him, was never our hope of salvation. The people were. Those who had been trodden upon, used, manipulated, oppressed, slaughtered, shunned.
The Counterforce is rising.
Up Next: Part 3, Chapter 24.1 (ending on pg. 542 with the dialogue, “if I haven’t really defected at all. . . .”)
Note: I thought, I wasn’t going to have to do another two parter until a long chapter later in Part 3, but I forgot how dense 24 was! So, bear with me, because this is one of the best, most complex, and most important chapters of the novel coming up.
I.e., Introduction → Rising Action → Climax → Falling Action → Conclusion
Interestingly, the song that opens up Doper’s Greed mentions that ‘doper’s greed’ will lead to being turned into ‘swine,’ something that we will see occur to a character in the near future. I will not spoil anything, but keep in mind that base, greedy desire is something that leads to this transformation into a ‘pig.’