History Literature / GravitysRainbow

* AnythingThatMoves: Slothrop seems destined to bed any and every female who crosses his path, including ones below legal age and maybe ones that aren't even human.

-> "''What?''"

* TheCameo: UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, Malcolm X, and Mickey Rooney all make appearances.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: There are over 400 characters, with about 40 recurring.

%%* CainAndAbel: Tchitcherine and Enzian

Although it (deservingly) has a reputation as a difficult and sometimes cynical novel, it is also beautifully written and frequently uproariously funny, and it is one of the best examples of Pynchon's skill at combining highbrow and lowbrow within the same work (sometimes within the same sentence). It has also had significant impact on pop culture, serving as a creative inspiration for works as varied as Music/{{Devo}}'s "[[Music/FreedomOfChoice Whip It]]" and Creator/RianJohnson's ''Film/KnivesOut''. While generally not the recommended place for newcomers to start with Pynchon (''Literature/TheCryingOfLot49'' and ''Literature/InherentVice'' are two of the most commonly recommended starting points, being two of his shorter and more accessible novels), it is the ideal next place to go once they have acquired a taste for his style.

Although it (deservingly) has a reputation as a difficult and sometimes cynical novel, it is also beautifully written and frequently uproariously funny, and it is one of the best examples of Pynchon's skill at combining highbrow and lowbrow within the same work (sometimes within the same sentence). It has also had significant impact on pop culture, serving as a creative inspiration for works as varied as Music/{{Devo}}'s "[[Music/FreedomOfChoice Whip It]]" and Creator/RianJohnson's ''Film/KnivesOut''.

Although it (deservingly) has a reputation as a difficult and sometimes cynical novel, it is also beautifully written and frequently uproariously funny, and it is one of the best examples of Pynchon's skill at combining highbrow and lowbrow within the same work (sometimes within the same sentence). It has also had significant impact on pop culture, serving as a creative inspiration for works as varied as Music/{{Devo}}'s "[[Music/FreedomOfChoice Whip It]]" and Creator/RianJohnson's ''Film/{{KnivesOut}}''.

* WalkingTheEarth: Slothrop and The Schwarzcommandos. They find semi-religious meaning in the V-2 rocket.

* WalkingTheEarth: Slothrop and The Schwarzcommandos. They find mystical, semi-religious meaning in the V-2 rocket.

%%* GainaxEnding: The novel ends with [[spoiler:Rocket 00000 destroying the text.]] Possibly.
* GenreBusting: Skips between sci-fi, war, romance, pornography, family tragedy, horror and slapstick comedy.

* HappinessInSlavery: ''Horrifically'' applied to Gottfried.

* ImprovisedWeapon: Custard pies vs. biplane.

%%* RuleOfSymbolism: More than you can possibly imagine...and you'll probably see quite a bit else there as well while you're at it (see "What do you mean...") Even the {{Squick}} is used symbolically.

%%* WalkingTheEarth: Slothrop and The Schwarzcommandos. ''Everything'' in this book is symbolic, even when it's not.

%%* AntiClimax: Enzian and Tchitcherine's vendetta.

%%* AppliedPhlebotinum: A plastic called Imipolex G.

%%* HappinessInSlavery: ''Horrifically'' applied to Gottfried.

%%* ImprovisedWeapon: Man with custard pies vs. ''biplane''.

%%* MadScientist: Recurring Pavlovian villain Ned Pointsman.

%%* RapeAsDrama: Both literal and symbolic examples.

''Gravity’s Rainbow'' is a 1973 novel, a postmodern {{Doorstopper}} by Creator/ThomasPynchon made of MindScrew that split the Pulitzer board to the extent that no award was given that year. ''Gravity's Rainbow'' is set during the closing months of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, with flashbacks to 19th-century Madagascar, Weimar Berlin and 18th-century New England, and a flashforward to 1970s Hollywood, and breaks every rule of plot. Here we go now:

American soldier Tyrone Slothrop is hunted by a wing of British scientists, media men, military personnel and lunatics called The White Visitation, after it comes to light that every time he has sex with a British woman, a V2 rocket hits the house within days and that his erections may be able to predict V2 attacks on London. Slothrop, addled by justified paranoia, goes AWOL and, along with dozens of other characters, hunts for the truth behind a top secret German rocket known as the Schwarzgerät or '00000', while being sidetracked by movie producers, Berlin drug dealers, and an affair with a witch. Meanwhile a Russian marine sets off to hunt down and kill his black half-brother, who is currently leading his platoon around Europe toward an ethnic suicide, and various characters form an inept Counterforce to the novel's conspiracy networks, along with about 30 other subplots.

[[quoteright:234:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/GravitysRainbowCover_4957.JPG]]

* SouthAfricansWithSurfaceToAirMissiles: Played for tragedy with the Herero tribe's wandering rocket technicians.

''Gravity's Rainbow'' is a 1973 novel, a postmodern {{Doorstopper}} by Creator/ThomasPynchon made of MindScrew that split the Pulitzer board to the extent that no award was given that year. ''Gravity's Rainbow'' is set during the closing months of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, with flashbacks to 19th-century Madagascar, Weimar Berlin and 18th-century New England, and a flashforward to 1970s Hollywood, and breaks every rule of plot. Here we go now:

* CovertPervert: Brigadier Pudding, emphasis on the "pervet" part.

* RapeAsDrama