Gravity's Rainbow - Part 3 - Chapter 4: Shadows from Above

Analysis of Gravity's Rainbow, Part 3 - Chapter 4: The Brocken Specter, Slothrop and Marvy's Aerial Pie Fight

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About a month after the events of Walpurgisnacht, Slothrop — recently returned from his adventures in the Mittelwerke, and as we soon learn, having snuck out of the castle inhabited by Glimpf and Nazi scientist Zwitter (3.2) — and Geli Tripping stand atop The Brocken, the highest mountain in North Germany. This mountain is thought to have mystical properties — a perfect place for Geli, thought by many to be a witch, to bring Slothrop. The Brocken is the place of Walpurghisnacht, a night where so many prayed to God to save them from the curses of the witches, and where the witches themselves met on The Brocken to hold dealings with Satan. Slothrop (per 1.4) has ties to all of America’s past. It should be no surprise that there too were witches in his lineage, one specifically who was hanged during the Salem Witch Trials, Amy Sprue — just another oppressed character in Slothrop’s family history, accused, tried, and killed out of fear that she could uproot the way things are supposed to be.

Geli has brought them to this spot on the Brocken, at this specific time, for a reason. It is the time of the Brockengespenst, the Brocken Specter¹. A moment when the fog and clouds, the light of the sun, all connect in perfect harmony. The shadow of a person standing atop the Brocken will stretch across the cities and plains like a God or a Titan. It is here atop these evil mountains, observing the lands that have been plundered and abused, that a man can truly feel like a God. The Nazi in the high floor of his castle, the King surveying his subjects, the Gods on Mount Olympus playing games with the Trojans and the Achaeans. Slothrop, here, is getting a taste of what this power would be like as the limbs of his body become entire cities, as his organic matter transforms to the inorganic by the substratum of repressed light. Though the two of the are not power-hungry gods; they act as children with newfound powers. Slothrop extends his arms over the country, admiring his strength like a child learning to walk. He subsequently says ‘fuck you’ to the West with a quick middle finger. Geli dances, “grabs for Slothrop’s cock,” (330) and Slothrop returns the favor. This is no abuse of power, it is the surprise of such power being given so simply and easily. Yet, just as easily as the power was given, it was taken away: “the shadows have come shrinking back to their owners” (331).

Tchitcherine is a bit more businesslike than Slothrop. Geli says that he has never been out here to see the Brockengespenst, has never had the time. Tchitcherine has very specific goals that he is not willing to sacrifice for a mere taste of godhood. He is more rational, realizes that this meandering and child’s play holds no real merit — is just a distraction. But Slothrop and Geli have plenty of time for each other, meandering around the Zone, coming across Schwarzkommando who would question Slothrop endlessly, for he was a newer entity within this world, possibly one with answers from the outside. And Geli, well she is just old news, having been travelling around with Tchitcherine, so there is no point in asking her these questions as well. Though, Geli realizes that Tchitcherine and these Africans, these Schwarzkommando, have some unspoken connection. As we know, Enzian, the leader of the Schwarzkommando, and Tchitcherine are half-brothers (3.3), and they both, along with Slothrop, are looking for the Schwartzgerät. There seems to be some unspoken understanding between these three that this device needs to be found. Slothrop seeks it for an understanding of himself and the weapons that are coming to rule this world; Enzian seeks it in hopes of creating the first African rocket — a possible means of self-defense or, to Ombindi, suicide; and Tchitcherine’s goal has yet to be revealed. Marvy and his Mothers are the only ones who seek it for purely evil intentions, hence why “nobody [here] seems to be connected with that Ordnance” (331) — i.e. those teams scavenging rocket parts, possibly also seeking the Schwartzgerät, in order to build more weapons to kill.

Slothrop begins attempting to connect the events from pre-Zone to the Zone itself. Despite the fact that those “Rolls Roycers who were after him in Zürich” (332) were following him on Pointsman’s behalf (and we know Pointsman has lost Slothrop), there is no way that Slothrop could have figured this out. So, he begins theorizing all the ways They could still be hunting him, from Marvy being sent into the Zone to find him, Glimpf waiting to pick up Slothrop in case his attempted escape from Marvy proved fruitful, and Zwitter, the Nazi scientist, ready to imprison or experiment on him once captured.

Geli, who either agrees with Slothrop’s paranoid conspiracies or simply believes that Marvy is a danger to him in general, thinks it best that Slothrop leaves Nordhausen and escapes to Berlin. So, she brings him to a friend, Schnorp, makings deliveries to Berlin in a hot air balloon. Schnorp believes, given the unsuspecting nature of a hot air balloon in a country that has recently been overrun by far more dangerous and nefarious aerial vehicles, that this balloon can travel safely and easily, free from observation. So, Geli and Slothrop make a goodbye filled with longing, Slothrop himself realizing that after being here in the Zone for so long, a blank world that is constantly being rewritten, his past tendencies too are changing. He is no longer able to so easily leave behind things he is losing, things he loves. Instead, Slothrop finds himself pining for a place of solace — somewhere to form a home or a safe place to reside, to love in, instead of continuing his trek into self- and societal-discovery. But nonetheless, Slothrop must leave, and with Geli telling him never to forget her — Slothrop knowing he never will — he is off to Berlin in the hot air balloon.

Slothrop (who sees Marvy’s Mothers in vehicles on the ground) and Schnorp (who it turns out is transporting a batch of custard pies) discuss the intricacies of the Zone. While Slothrop believes they are “‘flying into that Russian zone,’” Schnorp realizes that there are “‘No zones but the Zone’” (333). While these lines of division may have existed at one point in time, post-WWII, the lines dividing continents and countries have become mere formalities, while the real dividing lines lie within the hierarchies — not in terms of wealth, “but in levels of power” (327) (3.3).

Out of the blue, a sound is heard. A limerick emerges, a plane makes its way toward the balloon, and Marvy makes his appearance once again. So begins the aerial pie fight — Slothrop and Schnorp launching their payload, the batch of custard pies, toward Marvy and his Mothers. The scene proceeds with suspense: Marvy’s plane veers off making itself a pinpoint in the distance, the balloon is blanketed in the white vapor of a cloud, quieting and blinding the scene around them. It is like a scene in a suspense film, where all becomes silent and still as the thief, the agent, the hero, sneaks their way toward their target, believing for a moment the plot favors them, and that they are a few steps ahead of the antagonist. And yet, like the man with a gun sneaking up from behind, the limericks crescendo in and chaos lets loose. The vehicles cannot find each other, yet little flashes of the hull come past, the engine whines while Slothrop cannot see his target — and then, the engine is visible. Slothrop launches a pie, Schnorp a sandbag . . . but both, unfortunately, miss. Or do they? For off in the unseen distance, “‘Oh, fuck!’” (336) replaces the limericks. The bag was caught between cylinders of the plane’s engine, and the plane must move off for an emergency landing. For now, Slothrop is safe.

Slothrop frets over losing Schnorp half of his payload. But with the world being rewritten in the Zone, especially since there has not been much time yet for said rewriting, he realizes that they are back in the time in which “passages are long and hazardous” and “Loss in transit is a part of life” (336). While They are converting markets to their own specifications, at the moment, these markets exist as they did far in the past. But they will be rebuilt. Though all Slothrop can think of now as the balloon travels safely toward Berlin, Marvy’s plane now long gone, is the shadow of the Earth and the balloon flying quickly over the German landscape, just as earlier, Slothrop and Geli’s shadows traveled over the Brocken. Slothrop recalls himself also traveling at the speed of sound in Southern France — or, learning, becoming, the rocket itself: the V-2 that ignores these laws. That arrives and destroys even before it is heard, playing its chorus to an audience that no longer exists.

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Up Next: The first half of Part 3, Chapter 5 (up to page 348)

1. The Brockengespenst is an actual phenomenon on the Brocken mountains of Northern Germany where, under specific conditions, a person’s shadow will stretch over the countryside like the shadow of a giant.