Chapter 13

Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.

"A courageous scientific imagination was needed to realize that not the behavior of bodies, but the behavior of something between them, that is, the field, may be essential for ordering and understanding events." - Albert Einstein

The social scientist Kurt Lewin is famous for the concept of field theory in human relations. "The most fundamental construct for Lewin is, of course, that of "field". All behavior (including action, thinking, wishing, striving, valuing, achieving, etc.) is conceived of as a change of some state of a field in a given unit of time (dx/dt). In treating individual psychology, the field with which the scientist must deal is the "life space" of the individual. [p.xi, Foreword, Field Theory of Social Science, Kurt Lewin, Harper Torchbooks, 1951.]
dt will resonate with all readers of Gravity's Rainbow, of course.

Hiroshima is the largest city on the Honshu island of Japan. It was the first city to be hit with a nuclear weapon. This occurred on August 6, 1945 at 8:15 am. The character Hiroshima tells Pig about radiation.

Venusberg is the Germanic name for the underground abode of Venus, the goddess of love. Venus attained great prominence in the Middle Ages as the pagan, earthly power opposed to the spiritual power of the Church. The knight Tannhäuser spent a year there worshipping Venus.

Profane looks just like Kilroy here. Later in the novel Kilroy will be described as a schlemiel (484) making a comparison between Kilroy and Profane.