Proverbs for Paranoids, 3: If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.

Gravity’s Rainbow, p. 251.

I am pleased to inform you all I have meditated on Lt .Tyrone’s Third Proverb and concluded that “Ooh what’s this they’re drinking then?” is in fact exactly the right question. Other literary scholars may have fallen into Their trap and pursued alternative lines of inquiry, performing intricate post-structural analyses or arcane Lacanian psychoanalytical readings, but we’re cutting straight to the heart of the matter here.

Let’s turn then to a drink that appears mere pages after the above Proverb, with Slothrop in Zurich meeting up with the local Waxwing rep. The bloke’s a Russian called Semyavin:

Semyavin pours gentian brandy into cups of tea he’s just brewed. “First thing you have to understand is the way everything here is specialized. If it’s watches, you go to one cafe. If it’s women, you go to another. Furs are subdivided into Sable, Ermine, Mink, and Others. Same with dope: Stimulants, Depressants, Psychomimetics…. What is it you’re after?”

“Uh, information?” Gee this stuff tastes like Moxie…. […]

A tragic sigh. “Information. What’s wrong with dope and women? Is it any wonder the world’s gone insane, with information come to be the only real medium of exchange?”

Gravity’s Rainbow, p. 258.

Whether or not he’s got the stuff Slothrop’s after, I’ll happily take on Semyavin’s mixological information. I have this afternoon sloshed some Suze— a bitter French apertif made from the herbaceous gentian root—into a couple of cups of tea. (Suze may not technically be brandy, but it is gentian through and through). How does it taste? Suprisingly good! The bittersweet, floral, and citrusy notes of the Suze meld nicely with the tea for a light but bracing afternoon cocktail.

Slothrop’s got the right idea with the flavour here, by the way. Moxie is a soft drink flavoured with gentian root. It’s probably a childhood memory for him—prior to the great depression, Moxie was a very popular drink. Semyavin’s gentian brandy-spiked tea provides a European echo of our American’s sugar-loaded, mass produced, child friendly tonic.

Hopefully this has adequately addressed all the right questions relating to this passage and the Pynchonian oeuvre in general. See you next time.