17: In which we tour Mr. Pynchon’s Mysterious Society for Peculiarly Gifted Bureaucrats (Gravity’s Rainbow Episodes 1.17-1.21)

About this episode

The episode explores key characters and themes in Gravity's Rainbow, including the occult and emotional narratives.

Do we dare go beyond “Beyond the Zero”? Well, first we’ve got to meet a bunch of characters who will surely—surely—be important later. Then, this book heard you liked the occult, so it put a séance in its séance so you can speak to the dead while you speak to the dead. Finally, Roger and Jessica just keep breaking our hearts. Next time, Gravity’s Rainbow Episodes 2.1 and 2.2, or pp. 181-208 in the U.S. Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition. Support the show and get access to monthly bonus episodes at patreon.com/pynchonpals and follow us @pynchonpals.bsky.social . For the month of May’s bonus episode, we’ll be watching Hitler's Secret Weapon: The V-2 Rocket at Peenemunde (1977) ( link via Archive.org ), V2: Nazi Rocket a.k.a. Hitler's Space Rocket (2016) (there seems to be a couple cuts or versions of this one across streaming platforms and maybe international distributors—but here’s a link to one version on YouTube ), and “V2 Assembling and Launching” (1947) ( link via YouTube ). Show Notes: “Hark the Sound,” by William Starr Myers , a.k.a. “Far Above Cayuga's Waters,” a.k.a. “Annie Lisle,” a.k.a. the Yoyodyne “Hymn” via the UNC Library Picasso’s “Las Meninas, or one of 58 anyways…

People in this episode

Host: Pynchon Pals

Topics covered

• occult
• characters
• Pynchon
• literature
• seance
• emotional impact

Keywords

• Gravity's Rainbow
• Pynchon
• occult
• characters
• seance
• Roger
• Jessica
• literature
• emotional impact

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: UNC Library, Guggenheim Museum, CBR, Thomas Pynchon Name Generator

Books & works: Gravity’s Rainbow, Hitler's Secret Weapon: The V-2 Rocket at Peenemunde, V2: Nazi Rocket a.k.a. Hitler's Space Rocket, V2 Assembling and Launching, Hark the Sound, Las Meninas

More episodes of Pynchon Pals

• 19: In which this book is sort of like The History Channel meets The Great Mouse Detective meets Severance meets Riverdale meets Dumb and Dumber (Gravity’s Rainbow Episodes 2.3-2.5) · June 3, 2026 · 3h 5m
• 18: In which Patrick finally finds an excuse to do his Jimmy Stewart impression (Gravity’s Rainbow Episodes 2.1-2.2) · May 20, 2026 · 2h 23m
• 16: In which Crest the savior is born (Gravity’s Rainbow Episodes 1.14-1.16) · April 22, 2026 · 2h 46m
• 15: In which a real live rocket launches (Gravity’s Rainbow Episodes 1.8-1.13) · April 8, 2026 · 2h 53m
• 14: In which the Pynchon Pals, in their arrogance, thought they could talk through more of the book in three hours (Gravity’s Rainbow Episodes 1.1-1.7) · March 25, 2026 · 3h 11m
• 13: In which we wonder, what if this book was, like, six times as long? (The Crying of Lot 49 Ch. 6) · March 11, 2026 · 2h 48m