Each day the mythical return Enzian dreamed of seems less possible. Once it was necessary to know uniforms, insignia, airplane markings, to observe boundaries. But by now too many choices have been made. The single root lost, way back there in the May desolation. Each bird has his branch now, and each one is the Zone.
In Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow," the protagonist Enzian longs for a mythical return that appears increasingly unattainable each day. The world he once knew, with its clarity in uniforms and boundaries, has morphed into a landscape filled with decisions that have fragmented identity and purpose. The connections that once mattered have faded away, replaced by desolation and confusion.
As individuals have taken their separate paths, each person embodies their own zone,...
