"You can't run a war on gusts of emotion." ~P.M.S. Blackett > P.M.S. Blackett was an English experimental physicist who contributed > to a variety of scientific fields, including paleomagnetism and > particle physics. As the quote above reflects, he is most widely > recognized for his work with military strategy and operational > research during World War II. > > Here one sees yet another lovely example of Pynchon playing with > names, as well as a quick look into one of the book's central > dichotomies. Although it's conceivable that others might print Patrick > Blackett's name as "P.M.S. Blackett" with no thought of premenstrual > syndrome, given that the quote attributed to him involves staying calm > and unemotional, we know better than to expect Pynchon to ignore this > delicious morsel of irony. > > The quote, as well as its author, provides an early glimpse into the > book's central theme of war as both a sterile, bureaucratic process > and a nightmarish, human ordeal. Blackett's main goal as an adviser to > the British military was to make strategic decisions based solely on > numbers, rather than emotions or gut feelings. Math itself is a > leitmotif of Gravity's Rainbow, where the ordered and pristine world > it inhabits is in stark contrast to the hell of war, clearly > illustrated in the novel's title. "... A million bureaucrats are > diligently plotting death and some of them even know it..." (p. 17)
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