Abstract

In the Zeitgeist of GR, the rational, quantifiable world of physics, engineering and rocket science coexists with the mysterious, occult demimonde of "The White Visitation," a bizarre locale characterized, from Brigadier Pudding's point of view, as With its collection of eccentric Pavlovians, Freudians, neurologists, statisticians, technicians, psychometrists and seance devotees, "The White Visitation" is a site where discourses concerning hard science and the paranormal first converge and interact. As the novel progresses, the seemingly disparate languages of the two systems – what Weisenburger calls the "professional jargon" of hard science and the "esoteric cant" of the paranormal (6) –become so inextricably interwoven that they may be seen as interdependent, interchangeable and, to a certain extent, symbiotic.

How to Cite:

Reilly, T. & Tomaske, S., (2008) “Hard Science and the Paranormal in Gravity's Rainbow: Precognition Machines, Cockroaches, and Not That Helmut Schmidt”, Pynchon Notes , 39-53. doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/pn.24