Abstract

The "disparition" of Thomas Pynchon and the quasi-absence of peripheral data about him make it rather difficult to trace the sources of the Pynchonian luxuriance. It is therefore hazardous to claim to have identified any source, direct or indirect. Nevertheless, it is likely that Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy was known to Pynchon when he wrote Gravity's Rainbow. of only is it one of Nietzsche's most famous and most accessible books, but it is also the one dealing directly with what is clearly a concern for Pynchon: opera. My hypothesis is supported by remarkable similarities between the two books, not the least of which is the reductionism both have had to suffer.

How to Cite:

Leonet, Y., (1988) “Waking from the Apollonian Dream: Correspondences between the Birth of Tragedy and Gravity's Rainbow”, Pynchon Notes , 35-45. doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/pn.314