Abstract

The pig appears again and again, in many contexts, throughout Gravity's Rainbow. A number of studies have explored the way the pig image functions in the novel, but many of them are flawed by attempts to impose a single reading of the image. Not that one reading is correct and the others not: as with many aspects of Pynchon's writing, the truth is more complex. We were warned as early as The Crying of Lot 49 to beware the pitfalls of either/or thinking. The prevailing view of the pig as a symbol of transgression, detailed most thoroughly in Allon White's Bakhtinian reading, considers perhaps the primary function of the pig in GR. This function, however, is only one component of a multifaceted image.

How to Cite:

J. Hurley, P., (2001) “Pynchon, Grimm and Swinish Duality: A Note on the Pig Image in Gravity's Rainbow”, Pynchon Notes , 208-210. doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/pn.99