Paranoia vs. Anti-paranoia in Gravity's Rainbow

Abstract

Gravity's Rainbow is among the “most widely celebrated, unread novels" of American literature and already “a piece of minor folklore." Pynchon's genius manifests itself in his uniquely wide range of subject matter and literary techniques of presentation, narration, and interpretation. Gravity's Rainbow is a novel based on various sets of parallels, oppositions and double structures. These parallel patterns are abundant both in the structure of the novel, and in the content, characterization, and themes. In this paper two of these binaries, paranoia and anti-paranoia, are discussed to show how Pynchon enjoys involving his characters and his readers in a cosmos in which no absolute truth and no singular concept can survive on its own; a universe in which certainty is a luxury that no one can reach.