Gravity's Rainbow - Part 3 - Chapter 27: Deadly Revelations
Analysis of Gravity's Rainbow, Part 3 - Chapter 27: Närrisch Interrogated, New Intel on the 00000, Planning a Raid on the Schwarzkommando, Tchitcherine's Epiphany
Some time ago (back in 3.13, right around the time when Slothrop was first meeting Erdmann and boarding the Anubis), Enzian and the Schwarzkommando, in a wind-tunnel testing chamber at Peenemünde, interrogated Horst Achtfaden for any knowledge he may have had regarding the Schwarzgerät and the 00000 Rocket. They drugged him to the point that he envisioned himself upon the Rücksichtslos, also known colloquially as the Toiletship. While he could not provide them with the information they needed, he did provide them with the name of someone who could: Klaus Närrisch. Närrisch himself, as we later read, was with der Springer (Gerhardt von Göll) at Swinemünde when Slothrop arrived (post-Anubis) on the vessel of Frau Gnahb (3.19). Together, Slothrop, der Springer, Närrisch, Frau Gnahb, her son Otto, and a few other randoms including a circus leader with his chimpanzees, moved from Swinemünde to Peenemünde after Springer stated he could attain the Schwarzgerät for Slothrop. This mission led to der Springer’s capture at the hands of the Russians, his rescue (which included Slothrop and Närrisch binding Tchitcherine who also happened to be there with the Soviet army), and the group’s escape sans Närrisch who stayed back to fight the Soviets in order to allow his friend, der Springer, to escape (3.20).
Tchitcherine, and his army, as we read in the opening of this current chapter, were able to capture Närrisch before the Schwarzkommando without killing him (though it did cause them to lose a number of their own). Just like the Schwarzkommando did to Achtfaden, Tchitcherine and his men do Närrisch, thus learning what information the Schwarzkommando originally sought.
Närrisch informs Tchitcherine of a few specifics about the 00000 rocket. Firstly, "there was a radio link from the ground to the S-Gerät but not the other way round" (563). This first fact is odd: it gives the inference that there was, for some reason, a communication line set up between those launching the rocket and the rocket itself, though only allowing those launching to communicate with the 00000 — not that, as far as we know, the rocket would have anything yet to communicate back. Secondly, "there was an interference problem between a servo-actuator and a special oxygen line running aft to the device from the main tank" (564). The main tank of oxygen would naturally be used to burn fuel and propel the rocket onward, but there was an extra line running from the tank to the Schwarzgerät itself for an unknown reason. It also appears that something may have malfunctioned with this oxygen line, though the implications of its existence, purpose, or what the malfunction could mean are unclear. The one thing we do generally know is that a malfunctioning oxygen line attached to a fuel source poses a bit of a danger given oxygen’s capability of ignition. Thirdly, "Weissmann [also known as Blicero] not only coordinated the S-Gerät project at Nordhausen, but also commanded the battery that fired Rocket 00000" (563). This draws yet another group into the growing knowledge of Blicero’s participation in the creation and launching of the 00000 rocket which housed the Schwarzgerät. What it may be still remains unclear, but points one and two, which were extracted from Närrisch, paired with other information we have previously received such as the device’s size, all give major clues which could lead one to guess.1 Tchitcherine begins interpreting the new intel — the radio signal and the oxygen line — into the possibility of an afterburner. However, given Närrisch also mentioned some sort of asymmetrical loading upon the 00000, this, to Tchitcherine’s knowledge of propulsion systems which is admittedly limited, signifies that it was something more.
He is here with Džabajev, the companion he was with when he stole Slothrop’s hashish (3.9), and both Major Marvy and Clayton ‘Bloody’ Chiclitz, who had both recently been with Slothrop without knowing it (3.26). The three of them are together in preparation for a raid on the Schwarzkommando, but little do any of these men know, Slothrop has warned the Herero all about the coming raid.
So, what is the purpose of this raid? Tchitcherine, has been seeking Enzian for his own personal reasons, Enzian being the half-brother who he believes he is destined to kill. Marvy, however (though he does want to kill them for his own bigoted and paranoid motivations stemming from the Schwarzkommando possessing rockets of their own) is currently doing it out of necessity based on the commands of the higher ups. Tchitcherine does have pause when Marvy mentions the Soviet intelligence officer (Slotrop in disguise — the disguise ironically being Tchitcherine’s old uniform) who went out to scout the Schwarzkommando. It instills a paranoia in him as well, given Soviet intelligence did not tell him of such an officer. He ponders whether he is once again being targeted as he was when he was sent to Central Asia to spread the New Turkic Alphabet for reasons, to him, unknown (3.5). This time, he realizes a punishment will not simply be exile, but death.
Chiclitz interjects while Tchitcherine and Marvy are both worrying about what their governments may be needing this attack for and what they may do to them if it is not completed in a timely or effective manner. So, Chiclitz states, "Get some business people in there to run it right, instead of having the government run everything" (565). As we read in 3.26, Chiclitz represents the coming hyper-capitalist state where politics, government, profiteering, business, industry, and weapons manufacturing all merged into one single entity. His establishment of Yoyodyne would be a symbol for an age of the state in which he is suggesting. It is already apparent that this is happening to an extent given General Electric is the organization pressuring Marvy into the attack and that others such as Dillon (another firearms manufacturer) and Standard Oil (‘Awl’) are also having a say.
Tchitcherine begins putting things together regarding the War state and its tie to industry. He sees that various American industries and corporations are having a say in the fallout of the war along with collecting information and material on German weapons for unspecified reasons. On top of this, he sees ties between American and German corporations such as General Electric and Siemens, a company who used exploited labor by prisoners in concentration camps such as Auschwitz. Along with these, he recalls a man, Carl Schmitz, from IG Farben sitting on the board of directors at Siemens. This tie-in between German and American industry using IG Farben2 as one of the more behind-the-scenes leaders driving these industries forward, continues to foreshadow the coming state of the world that Chiclitz represents: one in which industry and politics are indiscernible and in which blatant murder and genocide can be forgiven in the name of profit. This system would even utilize and commodify both murder and genocide as means of profit and as means of distraction.
The epiphany that Tchitcherine comes to is something that Slothrop glimpsed upon his entrance to the Mittelwerke (3.2), a coming Raketen-Stadt, or Rocket City. One in which the needs of the Rocket drove the needs of the market, thus transforming it into a leader or even a God. Upon his entrance, Slothrop witnessed a vision of every industry and medium succumbing to the grip of the Rocket’s need, both imparting a desensitization to the state which will be inundated with death and oppression as well as a means to commodify those same concepts through obsession and addiction. Tchitcherine’s vision moved a step further, tying these concepts of the Raketen-Stadt to its real leaders. The Rocket may be a symbolic God to the world and its people, but it is the industries who pull the strings. They have produced the Rocket, have given it flesh, a spirit, a voice; but they are the ones who are profiting off its Godhood. So, he thinks, could this be why he and Enzian are targets? seeking the rocket not for the purpose it was designed for, but to reclaim it, using it against the State which it was built to elevate?
Tchitcherine’s paranoia finally comes to a peak. Is he learning and realizing too much? Could this knowledge bear a risk on his own safety? Is Marvy, America, the Raketen-Stadt, the World, staring down at him, eyes bulging, warning him to stop his search? Even if they are, it is too late to turn back at this point.
Up Next: Part 3, Chapter 28
For new readers, I do promise to keep any major spoilers regarding the device’s purpose hidden until the reveal. I will add up the clues to help you possibly inference what the device and rocket did, but I will not state it outright. I may (maybe I already did?) have to state it at some point, but I will provide very obvious spoiler tags if I do.
Recall that Tchitcherine’s connection with IG Farben lies in the drug manufacturing which he spoke with Wimpe about and which led, possibly, to his exile in Central Asia (3.5).