A191299 List of integers in Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow".

20, 200, 200, 69, 1935, 1939, 1942, 1944, 10, 300, 200, 1766, 1812, 1933, 1931, 1931, 15, 200, 1944, 1936, 33, 33

Offset: 1

Author

John M. Campbell, May 30 2011

Keywords

• word
• nonn
• fini
• full

Comments

Integers, in order (up to and including p. 36) appearing in the 1973 novel "Gravity's Rainbow".

Rules: In order to avoid confusion with rational numbers, numbers in strings less representative of entire isolated integers (e.g. "6:43:16 BDST", p. 29), single-quotation-mark-truncated integers (e.g. " '37 ", p. 20, as opposed to "1937"), etc., we begin by establishing the following rules:

(i) The integers cannot be connected to non-space-characters except if: the integer is immediately followed by a period then a space, or a comma then a space, or a question mark then a space, or an exclamation point then a space, or a colon then a space, or a semicolon then a space, or a closing bracket, or a double quotation mark (but not a single quotation mark, e.g. "86'd" p. 22); or except if an opening bracket immediately precedes the integer, or if a double quotation mark (but not a single quotation mark, given the truncation concern indicated above) immediately precedes the integer; integers may be concatenated using "-".

(ii) Integers containing a comma such as "50,000" (p. 85) are allowed.

(iii) These numbers cannot be written using characters of the alphabet, e.g. "Zero" (p. 1), or "World War II" (p. 17).

(iv) The page numbers and chapter numbers of the book are not included (although the corresponding page numbers are indicated below).

(v) Integers appearing in equations are included.

(End of Rules)

See examples below for integers which are and are not(/would not be) included by the above rules.

The corresponding page numbers (in the below edition) are: 3, 7, 7, 9, 14, 17, 18, 21, 21, 25, 27, 27, 27, 28, 29, 29, 31, 34, 34, 36, 36, 36.

Examples

			"...drunks, old veterans still in shock from ordnance 20 years obsolete..." (p. 3)
"Well, the range of these things is supposed to be over 200 miles. You can't see a vapor trail 200 miles, now, can you." (p. 7)
"A lot of stuff prior to 1944 is getting blurry now." (p. 21)
"...hmm, the frock she imagines is about 15 guineas and who knows how many coupons..." (p. 31)
Integers in the following strings/words are not/would not be included: "A4" (p. 8), "V-2" (p. 8), "4/4" (p. 9), "2" immediately followed by the single "1/2" symbol (p. 16), "8:20" (p. 17), " '37 " (p. 20), "86'd" (p. 22), "6:43:16 British Double Summer Time" (p. 27), "3-sigma" (p. 41), "0.37" (p. 57), "10%" (p. 62), "140th" (p. 65), " '39 " (p. 65), "104^o" (where "o" is the degree symbol) (p. 133), etc.
		

References

• Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow". 1973. Penguin Books, New York, 2006.

Links

• Wikipedia, Gravity's Rainbow

Crossrefs

Cf. A055627, A145833, A014254, A142719. Other sequences involving a work of fiction.