Gravity’s Rainbow (Cyclopedia of Literary Places)
At a glance:
- Author: Thomas Pynchon
- First Published: 1973
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Historical realism
- Time of Work: 1944-1945
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction, Picaresque fiction, Apocalyptic and catastrophe fiction, Alternate history
- Subjects: Power, personal or social, Sex or sexuality, Europe or Europeans, 1940’s, World War II, Drugs, Espionage or spies, Behaviorism, Technology, Paranoia, Quest, Arms or weapons, Rocketry or rockets
- Locales: Europe, United States, London, England
Places Discussed
*London. Capital of Great Britain in which the novel opens during the final days of the European theater of World War II. Although Germany is facing almost certain defeat, it continues to bombard London with V-2 rockets—weapons of great psychological power because the noise they make while approaching and striking their targets gives a menacing resonance to the military’s use of the word “theater” to describe war zones.
*The Zone. Parts of Western Europe liberated from German occupation. As the war ends, Slothrop travels from London to the...
[The entire page is 767 words long]
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