Gravity's Rainbow, domination, and freedom

269 Pages·2013·2.37 MB·English

by  Herman

Gravity’s Rainbow, Domination, and Freedom
THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA PRESS 2013
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Gravity’s
Rainbow,
Domination,
and Freedom
Luc Herman and Steven Weisenburger
THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA PRESS
Athens and London
© 2013 by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
www .ugapress .org
All rights reserved
Set in Sabon and Futura by Graphic Composition, Inc.
Printed digitally
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
Herman, Luc.
Gravity’s Rainbow, domination, and freedom / Luc Herman and
Steven Weisenburger.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8203-3508-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) —
isbn 0-8203-3508-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) —
isbn 978-0-8203-4595-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) —
isbn 0-8203-4595-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Pynchon, Thomas. Gravity’s rainbow. I. Weisenburger, Steven. II. Title.
ps3566.y55g73455 2013
813'.54—dc23 2013015147
British Library Cataloging- in-Publication Data available
ISBNfordigitaledition:978-0-8203-4655-7
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
“What’s Free?” (An Introduction) 1
One. Novel and Decade 19
Chapter 1. Fromm and the Neo- Freudian Library 24
Chapter 2. Marcuse: (No) Chances for Freedom in Advanced
Industrial Society 34
Chapter 3. Brown’s Polymorphous Perversity and Marcuse’s
Repressive Tolerance 42
Chapter 4. Total Assault on the Culture 51
Chapter 5. The Law and the Liberation of Fantasy 72
Two. Domination 83
Chapter 6. Controlling Slothrop 92
Chapter 7. War as a Cartel Project 106
Chapter 8. Working for the Nazis 114
Chapter 9. The Logic of the Camp 128
Three. Freedom 151
Chapter 10. Liberating Narration 159
Chapter 11. Narrating Liberation 176
Chapter 12. Tyrone Slothrop’s “Fuck You!” 199
“Too Late” (A Conclusion) 215
Notes 223
Index 247
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Acknowledgments
The concept and argument for this book took shape during our joint 2009
fellowship at the Flemish Academic Centre for Science and the Arts in Brus-
sels. Without the center’s generous support and collegial environment, no
amount of transatlantic emailing or Skype calling would have gotten us here.
At the center, Marc Demay, Inez Dua, and Chris Brossé provided thoughtful
and kind encouragement and assistance—and daily coff ee! Also in Brussels,
at the Royal Library’s Center for American Studies, Myriam Lodeweyckx
provided access to and guidance through the center’s holdings. Southern
Methodist University provided a research leave, enabling Steve’s residency at
the Royal Academy, while the Jacob and Frances Mossiker Trust funded his
travel to Europe and to American special collections libraries, without which
we also would not have gotten the book done.
At the University of Texas, librarians at the Harry Ransom Center assisted
our research in the Thomas Pynchon Collection and in their archived sixties-
era underground press materials. Sue Hodson, curator at the Huntington Li-
brary in San Marino, California, assisted us during several visits for work
with the Stephen Michael Tomaske Collection of Pynchon- related materials;
Luc, in particular, is grateful for the Huntington fellowship that enabled his
stay in April 2011. Staff at the University of California’s Bancroft Library as-
sisted our research in their archive of sixties- era small press and free speech
movement materials.
Portions of this book were adapted from previously published essays in
Texas Studies in Literature and Language (34.1, 1992), Pynchon Notes (34–
35, 1994; and 56– 57, 2009); and Revista di Studi Anglo- Americani 8.10 (1994),
and from the commemorative collection Sans Everything (2004). Other por-
tions were fi eld- tested before savvy audiences at the University of Antwerp
and at International Pynchon Week conferences, and we are grateful for their
questions and suggestions.
Editor Nancy Grayson of the University of Georgia Press helped get this
book under contract in 2009, then waited patiently until we delivered the
manuscript three years later—as she stood on the threshold of retirement.
We owe Nancy great thanks, and trust that her travels are going splendidly.
For their expert peer reviews of our manuscript, we are especially grateful to
vii
David Cowart and John Kraff t, who provided detailed suggestions and use-
ful critiques. John, for decades the dean of Pynchon studies, provided what
may well be the greatest epic in the history of readers’ reports—closely in-
cisive and expansive in its corrections and critique—and David, also a long-
time Pynchon and contemporary literature scholar, off ered useful advice that
helped us sharpen the book’s argument at key points. Many thanks to both.
We are also very grateful for the help of photographer Debora Hunter, who
assisted with several of our images.
viii Acknowledgments
Gravity’s Rainbow, Domination, and Freedom