Since Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow was first published in 1973, the rainbow in the world of literature has not yet come; there is still much debate about how to assess this novel. While some people keep their faith in the text alone, and hence treat a novel as an independent existence, especially a novel as comprehensive as Gravity’s Rainbow, sometimes it is helpful to consider a literary work in the context of the writer’s other works. The evolutionary pattern of a writer’s career may shed light on what may seem enigmatic if considered independently. For instance, to some extent, Pale Fire is a full articulation of a dream of the character Victor from an earlier Nabokov’s novel, Pnin. In this essay, I would like to suggest one perspective
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Moreover, these two novels also refuse to grant readers the moment of revelation. While Oedipa remains trapped in the novel, Pynchon has nonetheless grown up. In the introduction to Slow Learners, Pynchon confesses that he has an impulse to do “some kind of a wall-to-wall rewrite” (S.L., 3). To some extent, the ending of Gravity’s Rainbow is a rewrite of the ending of Crying of Lot 49. Although the same proliferation of options happens again at the end of Gravity’s Rainbow, the endings of these two novels are in fact drastically different. In Crying of Lot 49, Pynchon merely poses four possibilities of the nature of the predicament that Oedipa faces, which “she [does not] like any of them” (C.L., 141). Yet in Gravity’s Rainbow, he suggests some possibilities of consolation, if not salvation: “There is a time, if you need the comfort, to touch the person next to you, or to reach between your own cold legs … or, if song must find you, here’s one They never taught anyone to sing” (G.R., 760). What Pynchon truly wants to fix, I think, is another set of possibilities enumerated at the end of Chapter One, right after Oedipa realizes that she may never have the chance to escape from the tower that encapsulates her. Pynchon lists four options (which I do not find helpful at all) for his character: “She may fall back on superstition, or take up a useful hobby like embroidery, or go mad, or marry a disk jockey,” yet still pessimistically concludes the chapter with the question: “If the tower is everywhere and the knight of deliverance no proof against its magic, what else?”(C.L., 12). The rest of Crying of Lot 49 is not only Oedipa’s search of Tristero and the way out of the tower, but also Pynchon’s
Moreover, these two novels also refuse to grant readers the moment of revelation. While Oedipa remains trapped in the novel, Pynchon has nonetheless grown up. In the introduction to Slow Learners, Pynchon confesses that he has an impulse to do “some kind of a wall-to-wall rewrite” (S.L., 3). To some extent, the ending of Gravity’s Rainbow is a rewrite of the ending of Crying of Lot 49. Although the same proliferation of options happens again at the end of Gravity’s Rainbow, the endings of these two novels are in fact drastically different. In Crying of Lot 49, Pynchon merely poses four possibilities of the nature of the predicament that Oedipa faces, which “she [does not] like any of them” (C.L., 141). Yet in Gravity’s Rainbow, he suggests some possibilities of consolation, if not salvation: “There is a time, if you need the comfort, to touch the person next to you, or to reach between your own cold legs … or, if song must find you, here’s one They never taught anyone to sing” (G.R., 760). What Pynchon truly wants to fix, I think, is another set of possibilities enumerated at the end of Chapter One, right after Oedipa realizes that she may never have the chance to escape from the tower that encapsulates her. Pynchon lists four options (which I do not find helpful at all) for his character: “She may fall back on superstition, or take up a useful hobby like embroidery, or go mad, or marry a disk jockey,” yet still pessimistically concludes the chapter with the question: “If the tower is everywhere and the knight of deliverance no proof against its magic, what else?”(C.L., 12). The rest of Crying of Lot 49 is not only Oedipa’s search of Tristero and the way out of the tower, but also Pynchon’s