The next two sections see Jessica lying in bed with Roger as she watches short scenes play across the ceiling above their bed. There's also a recounting of a time they were out driving and Jessica stood up in the car with her top off as a lorry full of little people hooted at and ogled her. That's about it. So I should probably talk about the sections following those two sections in this entry instead of making an entirely new one. The only thing I'm worried about is that this section has that one paragraph (maybe two) that lasts for six or seven pages. I mean, how do you get your head around something like that, let alone discuss it in a blog post? Especially when you're as dumb as I am?!
The next short section is Roger's. It's full of his paranoia and morning routines in The White Visitation as he pulls one of Jessica's hairs out of his mouth. Is there anything more upsetting than pulling somebody else's hair out of your mouth? I don't mean after the wind just blew their hair into your mouth so you knew why you were pulling it out. But finding it stuck in there after who knows how long it's been since you've been around people. I'm not sure it's ever happened to me. But it feels like it's happened to me! It's making me sick and, for some reason, making me think of Ring. Pretty sure there was a moment in that (or maybe in Spiral or Loop) where somebody pulled somebody else's hair out of their mouth (probably Samara's, right?!).
Speaking of Ring, you're probably, at least, familiar with the Americanized version of the film. But have you ever read the sequel, Loop? Talk about a fucked up book. And then Spiral is just a huge fucking cheat that could be a mind fuck if I hadn't felt so absolutely cheated by its conceit. But Loop? Man, I read that book and I was all, "No way they'd ever make a movie about this!" But guess what?! I was wrong! There is a Japanese movie based on the book and it's just as fucked up! I also thought they'd never make a movie based on Stephen King's Gerald's Game and I was proven wrong on that one too. Who are the people who read a book about a woman handcuffed to a bed for 48 hours and think, "This would make an exciting film!" I guess they're the same people who read a book about a cursed video tape which switches to a cursed manuscript which causes a woman to give birth to a dead woman who has the ability to give birth to anybody if their DNA is injected into her (and also the curse will cause everybody who winds up having a baby after seeing the film based on the manuscript to give birth to another Samara). I mean, what? Fuck you, Koji Suzuki! In a good way, I mean! I really loved Ring and, even though it was fucking idiotic, Loop. But Spiral? I mean, no thanks.
You may have noticed that I don't have a lot to say about this section of Gravity's Rainbow by the way I was distracted by hair in Roger's mouth. There's probably more to talk about like how paranoid Roger becomes while away from Jessica and how he finally realizes that he's working in a place full of paranormal freaks who could, with their crazy powers, be manipulating everything in his life. He suddenly feels so out of control that he briefly considers taking a job in Germany, with the enemy, as a means to regain control of his life! Poor Roger the statistician has begun to lose it.
It's because he's so in love. He's the member of the relationship who has no power because he's more in love with Jessica than she is with him. But for Jessica, the relationship seems to be what she needs to get through the war. She's definitely staying with Beaver after the war's over. Poor Roger is already dumped and he doesn't even know it. Or maybe he does know it and that's why he's beginning to panic.
Here's how Jessica feels about the relationship:
"Tonight she'll be with Jeremy, her lieutenant, but she wants to be with Roger. Except that, really, she doesn't. Does she? She can't remember ever being so confused. When she's with Roger it's all love, but at any distance—any at all, Jack—she finds that he depresses and even frightens her. Why? On top of him in the wild nights riding up and down his cock her axis, trying herself to stay rigid enough not to turn to cream taper-wax and fall away melting to the coverlet coming there's only room for Roger, Roger, oh love to the end of breath. But out of bed, walking talking, his bitterness, his darkness, run deeper than the War, the winter: he hates England so, hates 'the System,' gripes endlessly, says he'll emigrate when the War's over, stays inside his paper cynic's cave hating himself . . . and does she want to bring him out, really? Isn't it safer with Jeremy? She tries not to allow this question in too often, but it's there. Three years with Jeremy. They might as well be married. Three years ought to count for something. Daily, small stitches and easings. She's worn old Beaver's bathrobes, brewed his tea and coffee, sought his eye across lorry-parks, day rooms and rainy mud fields when all the day's mean dismal losses could be rescued in the one look—familiar, full of trust, in a season when the word is invoked for quaintness or a minor laugh. And to rip it all out? three years? for this erratic, self-centered—boy, really. Weepers, he's supposed to be past thirty, he's years older than she. He ought to've learned something, surely? A man of experience?"
The way Jessica thinks about Roger versus the way she thinks about Jeremy is telling. Roger doesn't have much hope in the long run.
The final section of this section takes place in a church with a military choir and I'll try to discuss it next time. Those page long paragraphs are intimidating!
The next short section is Roger's. It's full of his paranoia and morning routines in The White Visitation as he pulls one of Jessica's hairs out of his mouth. Is there anything more upsetting than pulling somebody else's hair out of your mouth? I don't mean after the wind just blew their hair into your mouth so you knew why you were pulling it out. But finding it stuck in there after who knows how long it's been since you've been around people. I'm not sure it's ever happened to me. But it feels like it's happened to me! It's making me sick and, for some reason, making me think of Ring. Pretty sure there was a moment in that (or maybe in Spiral or Loop) where somebody pulled somebody else's hair out of their mouth (probably Samara's, right?!).
Speaking of Ring, you're probably, at least, familiar with the Americanized version of the film. But have you ever read the sequel, Loop? Talk about a fucked up book. And then Spiral is just a huge fucking cheat that could be a mind fuck if I hadn't felt so absolutely cheated by its conceit. But Loop? Man, I read that book and I was all, "No way they'd ever make a movie about this!" But guess what?! I was wrong! There is a Japanese movie based on the book and it's just as fucked up! I also thought they'd never make a movie based on Stephen King's Gerald's Game and I was proven wrong on that one too. Who are the people who read a book about a woman handcuffed to a bed for 48 hours and think, "This would make an exciting film!" I guess they're the same people who read a book about a cursed video tape which switches to a cursed manuscript which causes a woman to give birth to a dead woman who has the ability to give birth to anybody if their DNA is injected into her (and also the curse will cause everybody who winds up having a baby after seeing the film based on the manuscript to give birth to another Samara). I mean, what? Fuck you, Koji Suzuki! In a good way, I mean! I really loved Ring and, even though it was fucking idiotic, Loop. But Spiral? I mean, no thanks.
You may have noticed that I don't have a lot to say about this section of Gravity's Rainbow by the way I was distracted by hair in Roger's mouth. There's probably more to talk about like how paranoid Roger becomes while away from Jessica and how he finally realizes that he's working in a place full of paranormal freaks who could, with their crazy powers, be manipulating everything in his life. He suddenly feels so out of control that he briefly considers taking a job in Germany, with the enemy, as a means to regain control of his life! Poor Roger the statistician has begun to lose it.
It's because he's so in love. He's the member of the relationship who has no power because he's more in love with Jessica than she is with him. But for Jessica, the relationship seems to be what she needs to get through the war. She's definitely staying with Beaver after the war's over. Poor Roger is already dumped and he doesn't even know it. Or maybe he does know it and that's why he's beginning to panic.
Here's how Jessica feels about the relationship:
"Tonight she'll be with Jeremy, her lieutenant, but she wants to be with Roger. Except that, really, she doesn't. Does she? She can't remember ever being so confused. When she's with Roger it's all love, but at any distance—any at all, Jack—she finds that he depresses and even frightens her. Why? On top of him in the wild nights riding up and down his cock her axis, trying herself to stay rigid enough not to turn to cream taper-wax and fall away melting to the coverlet coming there's only room for Roger, Roger, oh love to the end of breath. But out of bed, walking talking, his bitterness, his darkness, run deeper than the War, the winter: he hates England so, hates 'the System,' gripes endlessly, says he'll emigrate when the War's over, stays inside his paper cynic's cave hating himself . . . and does she want to bring him out, really? Isn't it safer with Jeremy? She tries not to allow this question in too often, but it's there. Three years with Jeremy. They might as well be married. Three years ought to count for something. Daily, small stitches and easings. She's worn old Beaver's bathrobes, brewed his tea and coffee, sought his eye across lorry-parks, day rooms and rainy mud fields when all the day's mean dismal losses could be rescued in the one look—familiar, full of trust, in a season when the word is invoked for quaintness or a minor laugh. And to rip it all out? three years? for this erratic, self-centered—boy, really. Weepers, he's supposed to be past thirty, he's years older than she. He ought to've learned something, surely? A man of experience?"
The way Jessica thinks about Roger versus the way she thinks about Jeremy is telling. Roger doesn't have much hope in the long run.
The final section of this section takes place in a church with a military choir and I'll try to discuss it next time. Those page long paragraphs are intimidating!
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