Gravity’s Rainbow, Domination, and Freedom THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA PRESS 2013 This page intentionally left blank 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 This page intentionally left blank 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