Echoes between the greatest American novel of this century and the greatest
television series ever.
The literal plane
Gravity's Rainbow is one of the "Cereal Novels" designed by Joel
to upgrade the literary content of the breakfast table.
Tom - "For the adventurous,you can start your day eating Lucky
Charms, while reading Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. It's magically
obscure." Crow contributes annoying Leprechaun giggles.
A more obscure direct reference can be found in The Rebel Set when
the struggling author turns back to his typewriter and Tom says - "A screaming
comes across the sky" ***
Tom (is his Pynchon-penchant possibly a hint why he is called Tom !?!)
has another throw-away line in "Teenagers from Outer Space" when referring
to the V-shaped duct-tape design on the alien uniforms he says "..or Thomas
Pynchon's V."
The plane of personae
Dr. Forrester/Pointsman -
Both these evil scientists are behaviourist
psychologists who in their deranged
search for knowledge and power have turned the life of their subject/victims
into a living experiment. And in "Teenagers from ..." (see above) it seems
to be rubbing off on poor Joel - he's performing behavior modification
(the kinder, gentler term for Operant Conditioning) on the 'bots to get
them to stop identifying every flashlight as the ABC Sunday Night Mystery
Movie -- and when they turn the tables and start administering the behaviorist
trademark electric shock therapy to Joel, Tom identifies him as Dr. Skinner!
Joel/Tyrone -
Our hero/victims are nonchalantly competent, resourceful and ultimately
doomed. (If Joel "escaped" why have we not heard from him, why no Hamdinger
sightings in Wisconsin ?) Joel is trapped on the Satellite of Love
and forced to watch the Cinema of the Lame, so the bad doctor can monitor
his thoughts for signposts to power and wealth. Tyrone is trapped in the
Zone, so Pointsman and an army of para-psychologists, military intelligencia,
and salesman-gone-native can use him as gude-post in the search for the
Holy Rocket
One of Tyrone Slothrop's many identities is Rocket Man (or Rocket Mensch)
which certainly applies to Joel.
Joel/Gottfried -
A cogent misreading finds an unthreatening yet real echo of the overt sexual
relationship between on the one hand Blicero/Weissmann and the the world's
first
astronaut Gottfried, sealed in the nose of the mythic
V2 known as s-gerat and Dr Forrester's attitude toward Joel
and Mike. The names he uses for Joel are the most revealing - Boy-Toy,
Joely-Boely, etc. Add the conspicuous absence of females in Deep 13 ...
The thematic plane
A World Well Lost For Cinemart
For Tyrone Slothrop the world has become film. A musical war film complete
with lyrics and fade-in, dissolve instructions from the author. German
Expressionist cinema is invoked, re-enacted and supplies numerous characters
and sub-plots to Tyrone's picaresque trek across the Zone. For Joel Robinson
film has become the world. Every invention and activity is a product of
the film-experiments he and the 'bots are forced to watch. Every visitor
to the satellite comes to life from the film
disasters and spooky propaganda shorts.
The plane of identity
Wild and Recluse in Minnesota
Now we come to the essential question. Given the following 1) No one will
claim to have seen or spoken to Thomas Pynchon for decades. 2) When he
received the National Book Award he sent Prof. Irwin Corey to represent
him. 3) Joel is just the right age to be his son. 4) The Wisconsin-based
origin of MST3K suggests that we may know the identity of Gravity Rainbow's
Kenosha Kid, eh ? 5) Why did Joel have to leave the show, just as all these
connections began to become all too clear to those with II 2 C ?