Part 4 - Chapter 4: Holding on to Paradise
Analysis of Gravity's Rainbow, Part 4 - Chapter 4: Katje at the Zone Herero Camp, Katje and Enzian, Blicero's Letters
Katje now rides on into the Zone, “and she’s not of our moment, our time, at all” (656). Instead, she and the events of the novel move further and further away from any commentary of WWII-proper or its immediate fallout. She is now a member of the revolution — a hopeful revolution of and for the future. Her first step is to meet up with that other group who had been trying to bring down the system far before our Counterforce had — the Zone Herero, a complete representation of the most oppressed of groups. While Katje and her peers have been oppressed in ways similar to how we (assuming most readers of this are average low-to-mid income earners largely based in America or Europe) have been. But those like the Zone Herero have experienced forms of oppression far greater than we could ever imagine. So who better to go to now that the Westerners are catching on to the West’s evils.
Despite coming to terms with these evils, Katje still maintains many of the prejudices and stereotyping present in Westerners, however enlightened they may be. Understanding how the system works does not immediately rid you of any of this; it’s a process. So, surprised that she is not immediately attacked upon entering Zone Herero territory, the Herero themselves come out and sing a number regarding her paranoia, even carrying a representation of her as the figure of paranoia itself. Her fear presents itself as these series of racist preconceptions, believing that meeting with the Herero (which is revealed to be part of Pirate Prentice’s plan) will force her to ‘endure blackness’ — a meeting that, being the epitome of the idyllic white-skinned Germanic woman, she has not prepared herself for.
But she soon begins putting aside the differences and discomforts which she believe will be so present, realizing how many things connect her and them — specifically, Enzian — as people. Firstly, their mutual love and hate toward Blicero/Weissmann. Enzian, having slept with and loved Blicero in Südwest as an adolescent (3.3 & 3.5), and having even moved to Germany afterward to see him again, was Blicero’s first. Katje (and Gottfried as well), kept in his facility in Holland before her escape (1.14), was Blicero’s next companion. Enzian, Katje, and Gottfried all fell under Blicero’s spell, being in awe of his power and thus coming to love him despite his abuse and obvious evil. Blicero thus held his prisoners in Stockholm Syndrome just as many people love and forgive their own abusers (whether that be physical abuse or systemic, political abuse).
It turns out that Katje is not the only one with prejudiced misconceptions, for as Enzian begins talking to her, he realizes, “This, then, is the Golden Bitch of Blicero’s last letters from Holland” (658). He understandably holds the Germanic people in disregard, but also targets Katje specifically for her proximity with Blicero near the end. Enzian, even though him and his Zone Herero wanted revenge on the European and German people, still loved him. And Katje was with Blicero at the end, unable or unwilling to save him.
Katje and Enzian begin talking about Blicero, discussing his ceaseless loneliness. And through this conversation, Katje begins to actually sympathize with Enzian, realizing that he was a fully decent man. So, she becomes truthful, telling Enzian that Blicero “‘was dying[.] I don’t even know if he left Holland alive’” (659). She tells him this in confidence, hoping he will not take her lack of ‘saving’ him poorly. But Enzian knows even more than she does, and similar to her previous thoughts of his decency, he begins considering her feelings for the situation and for Blicero. He thus reveals to her something that she didn’t know: that Blicero made it as far as the Lüneberg Heath. And as we know, the Heath was the location at which the final V-2 rocket of the war was launched, the 00000. Enzian tells her that he, and even Slothrop, have been seeking this location.
This discussion of their (and on a more allegorical level, our) abuser, has led to a solidarity between two marginalized classes of people who may not have seen eye to eye before — who held prejudices, biases, and even hatreds toward each other not long ago.
Interestingly, Katje also begins recalling her time with Slothrop at the Casino Hermann Goering. While we knew that she was hired by Pointsman and the White Visitation to help lead Slothrop toward Their intended end goal, we now see that she had genuine compassion for Slothrop (just like Tantivy Mucker-Maffick and Stephen Dodson-Truck did). This is one common thread that holds the Counterforce together: whether they were always on the side of the Preterite or not, they consistently knew that something with their situation was wrong. An inkling of doubt always lay hidden in their minds. Maybe that was why Katje left — not because her purpose was served, but because she (again, like the two men mentioned above) could not handle the horrors she was becoming a part of.
Enzian continues the discussion, revealing how he has become a part of the mythos of the Zone (just as Slothrop had in 4.1). His story was being told by those who made it through the war: “They gossip in a general way about me and Blicero, as yarns to be spun” (660). But Enzian is the only one who knows the truth about his love for Blicero. It was one that only youth could explain, finding a fascination with the ostensible confidence of a man who had a grand plan and who seemed so in touch with himself and the world. But even realizing that his love was something borne out of naïveté and youthful ignorance, he still holds onto that belief that “he’s still human,” (660) as if the incredible evil that emanated from Blicero was due to mere human imperfection. However, he does realize that this may simply be his subconscious desire to forgive himself and the man he once loved, even going as far as “asking [Katje] for real advice” (660).
Katje asks him what importance Blicero still holds over him, and he responds by showing her what he has created: “‘Underground schools, systems for distributing food and medicine. . . .’” (660) and so on. Similarly, the Black Panthers would go on to attempt similar contributions to society,1 only to be entirely shut down and endlessly targeted by the FBI.2 This desire to better the community — whether we are discussing the Zone Herero or the Black Panthers — stemmed from a lived oppression and an understanding of what such a system could impose on an individual and community. For Enzian, this understanding resulted from his interactions with Blicero — seeing what such a figure could cause. He knew that his love for this man was undeserved and unmerited — that Blicero, whether intentionally or simply by a manifestation of his own mental insanity, had perfected the method causing his captive to feel denial of their situation. Blicero caused those who he had captured to feel a sense of awe over him, developing a fascination and obsession with his ability to control systems with such ease and grace. Yet this is what they have done to us all: giving us the illusion that their ability is something commendable, presenting us with their apparent distress in certain situations so we believe they have the same struggle as we do. But it is a facade. And those like Enzian, disregarding the fact that he still holds that love for his abuser, have used this realization to form their own moral and societal philosophy, using it to alter the landscape of what can be done to help, or even save, the masses.
Enzian still distresses. He has created this realm which will (hopefully) benefit the masses, but still he finds himself hopeless, being a leader of a single group attempting to bring about prosperity of their people in the Raketen-Stadt — a world literally designed to not allow such prosperity. He believes that “‘There is no heart, anywhere now, no human heart left in which I exist’” (660).
Attempting to alleviate his pain, Katje proposes the idea that Blicero may still be alive. But Enzian knows this is a mere banality. Some attempt to artificially engender an inner-peace that that at this point, he knows, is not possible. Blicero, to him, has dissolved into the ether just as Slothrop has (though, as discussed earlier in the chapter, they don’t have any idea what happened to Slothrop yet). Yet whereas Slothrop represented us — the desire and sinful will to achieve that ‘American Dream’ — Blicero represented that which prevents us from that goal. His true sin and his desire to achieve the impossibility of both synthesis and control has become the basis for what the average person will seek in order to achieve that dream. Slothrop, however horribly flawed his journey may have been, never sought to dismantle the entirety of the human race — never sought a God-like ‘elevation’ beyond the human capacity.
So Katje wonders, and asks, that if this is the state that Enzian and Blicero have achieved, what has she become?: “‘You, poor Katje. Your story is the saddest of all. […] You’ve only been set free […] I told Slothrop he was free, too. I tell anybody who might listen. I will tell them as I tell you: you are free. You are free. You are free. . . .’” (661). He is telling her that she is no longer under the grasp that he was under. That she has somehow removed herself from Blicero’s grasp, just as Slothrop had removed himself from Pointsman and Jamf’s grasp (no, not in the sense that what they had done to him is gone, but that he had come to realize and thus condemn the evil of which they had accomplished). But why is this, supposedly, worse than Enzian’s position? Because Enzian sees that by removing herself from Blicero’s grasp, she has overcome the despair that most of the Preterite still hold onto. But with that alleviation of hopelessness, as we will see, she condemns herself for having helped put the world in the situation it is in. Her freedom pairs with her realization of wrongdoing. And so, once again as Enzian believes, maybe it is best that we hold onto despair — so at least to not be disappointed when we fail at our goal. This “inadmissible darkness [that] she is making believe for the moment is Enzian’s,” (661) is in reality, hers.
The ultimate reason for Katje visiting the Schwarzkommando encampment is revealed, as Enzian states, “‘You don’t have to come into this any further than locating Slothrop, […] All you have to do is tag along with us, and wait till he shows up again’” (662). Just as Pirate sent Mexico out into the Zone to search for Slothrop (4.2), so has he sent Katje via a different route. Slothrop is apparently the key to the Counterforce’s plan. But Katje, having been reformed in her thinking, needs more than to just find Slothrop, she must understand “why he’s out here, what [she] did to him, for Them[.] How can They be stopped?” (662). For her, it is not enough to just contribute to the cause she is a part of. She must also know what she had done wrong — must learn and live with it. Because, as Weissmann writing from the Hague observes, after being subjected to so much abuse, control, and brainwashing, the only thing that can remind her of her humanity is her pain. She has therefore developed a purposeful masochism — a desire to see exactly what and how she contributed to not just Slothrop’s downfall, but to the world’s. Enzian realizes all of this about her, and he knows that because of her inability to forgive herself for her wrongdoings, despite many of them being done under the control of others, her “story is saddest of all” (662). Even if the Counterforce succeeds, she will be unable to live with what she had done.
Finally, Enzian reveals that the Schwarzkommando had “someone who was with Blicero in May. Just before the end” (663). They have a recording of him, which Enzian tries to steer her away from listening to, but as one could guess, she needs to hear it in the same way she needs to know what happened to Slothrop. So off they go, past the sounds of clanking cafeteria trays of the Herero’s underground schools and free meals — something that, for now, they can ‘hold on to.’ If only such things could last.
Up Next: Part 4, Chapter 5
Check out various articles about Black Panther school breakfast programs or their founding of the Oakland Community School (a school for underprivileged students in inner-city communities) which helped distribute not only school breakfasts, but three meals a day.
Another point showing how Part 4 is a realization of the coming post-WWII eras — i.e. the Black Panthers and their dismantling and demonization via the FBI.