30: In which we take chemistry lessons from the manosphere and Missouri is mentioned (Gravity’s Rainbow Episodes 3.29-3.30)
Listener, there’s a lot of talk at the top of this episode about how we’re “leaving the Zone” and “finishing Book 3” and so on. Well, that dog just wasn’t gonna hunt. Instead, this novel continues to kick our collective butts, and we spend a record-setting 2 and a half hours discussing just 14 pages of text. But hey, these 14 pages have a lot to do with the book’s, uh, secret magical mystery shadow plot?
Next time, Gravity’s Rainbow Episodes 3.31 and 3.32, or pp. 601-627 in the U.S. Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition.
Support the show and get access to monthly bonus episodes at patreon.com/pynchonpals and follow us @pynchonpals.bsky.social.
For the month of November’s Patreon-exclusive bonus episode, we’re watching Carol Reed’s The Third Man (1949).
Show Notes:
“Laughing With the Fascists,” by Livia Gershon (https://daily.jstor.org/laughing-with-the-fascists/)
Reefer Madness ORIGINAL TRAILER - 1936 (https://youtu.be/sbjHOBJzhb0)
Interview with Devin Thomas O’Shea, author of The Veiled Prophet: Secret Societies, White Supremacy, and the Struggle for St. Louis (https://www.full-stop.net/2026/07/14/interviews/griffinreed/devin-thomas-oshea/)
St. Louis on the Air: Civil Rights Activist Percy Green And Writer Devin Thomas O’Shea On All Things Veiled Prophet (https://www.stlpr.org/show/st-louis-on-the-air/2019-07-03/civil-rights-activist-percy-green-and-writer-devin-thomas-oshea-on-all-things-veiled-prophet)
A Brief History of Pinball & Gambling (https://www.pacificpinball.org/pinball-gambling)
“The Man Who Saved Pinball,” by Daniel McKay (https://onwisconsin.uwalumni.com/the-man-who-saved-pinball/)
Pioneer Zephyr at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago (https://collections.griffinmsi.org/collections/2777)
“Ishmael Reed’s Hoodoo Detective,” by Scott Adlerberg (https://crimereads.com/ishmael-reeds-hoodoo-detective/)
“Motor Spirit,” by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard on PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation (https://youtu.be/U0AcBryPUxY)
Content warnings: strong language, physical and sexual violence, racism, misogyny, antisemitism, xenophobia, homophobia, genocide, suicide
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Featuring Patrick Fiorilli, Andrew Tillett, and Duri Long.
Produced and edited by Patrick Fiorilli (www.patf.io and @patfio.bsky.social).
Our theme music is “Horology,” by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives license on the album Polygondwanaland.
