Gravity's Rainbow

Gravity's Rainbow is a novel written by Thomas Pynchon and first published in 1973.

Relation to actual wartime events

Many facts in the novel are based on technical documents relating to the V-2 rockets. Equations featured in the text are correct. References to the works of Pavlov, Ouspensky, and Jung are based on Pynchon's actual research. The firing command sequence in German that is recited at the end of the novel is also correct and is probably copied in verbatim from the technical report produced by Operation Backfire.

Related Topics:
Ouspensky - German - Operation Backfire

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In reality, a V-2 rocket hit the Rex Cinema in Antwerp on December 16, 1944 where some 1200 people were watching the movie The Plainsman killing 567 people, the most that were killed by a single rocket during the whole war.

Related Topics:
V-2 rocket - Rex Cinema - Antwerp - December 16 - 1944 - The Plainsman

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Additionally, the novel uses many actual events and locations as backdrops to establish chronological order and setting within the complex structure of the book. Examples include the appearance of a photograph of Wernher Von Braun in which his arm is in a cast. Historical documents indicate the time and place of an accident which broke Von Braun's arm, thereby providing crucial structural details around which the reader can re-construct Slothrop's journey. Another example is the inclusion of a BBC radio broadcast of a Benny Goodman performance, the contents of which, according to historical record, were broadcast only once during the period of the novel and by which the events immediately surrounding its mention are fixed. Further historical events, such as Allied bombing raids on Peenemünde and the city of Nordhausen (close to the V-2 producing concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora) also appear in the novel and help to establish the relation of the work's events to each other.

Related Topics:
Wernher Von Braun - BBC - Peenemünde - Nordhausen - Mittelbau-Dora

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