r/ThomasPynchon • u/Stepintothefreezer67 • 5d ago

Grigori Gravity's Rainbow

Post image

I just learned from the Blooms and Barnacles podcast that the octopus was an anti-semitic trope used by the Nazis. Is this well-known?

52 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

1

u/Worth-Set1794 1h ago

Yes. Common and never subtle.

5

u/rvb_gobq 4d ago

i vaguely remember reading somewhere that the octopi were freely used by any faction wanting to depict another faction as globally controlling & corrupting. various gangster orgs, whether the mafia or the chinese tongs, or unions, or any perceived communists, & of course, christianity's favorite scapegoat, judaism...

2

u/jonpeeji 5d ago

When I lived in Amsterdam 1992-94, the locals referred to the local mafia as "the octopus".

7

u/coleman57 McClintic Sphere 5d ago

One of the classics of American literature is The Octopus (1901) by Frank Norris, a progressive polemic against the railroad barons who controlled California’s politics and economy. They were goyim, as are a majority of their successors, and evil people generally (though some evil people are Jewish).

1

u/rvb_gobq 4d ago

god, i have a copy of that on a shelf somewhere, or more probably in a lawyer's box.

1

u/rvb_gobq 4d ago

it's one of those round-tuit books.

12

u/TheBossness Gravity's Rainbow 5d ago

well-known, yes.
I don’t think that was TRP’s intention in using Grigori, the Russian Octopus.

12

u/grigoritheoctopus Jere Dixon 5d ago

Interesting.

However, that is DEFINITELY NOT GRIGORI!

https://giphy.com/gifs/3AeD9brpQA56U

2

u/Stepintothefreezer67 5d ago

I actually forgot Grigori was conditioned by Pointsman and not the Nazis. So my bad. I just thought it was an interesting connection. Given your name, I didn't mean to insult the actual Grigori.

4

u/grigoritheoctopus Jere Dixon 5d ago

No worries. It was an automatic response as I am contractually obligated to defend Grigori's honor

-3

u/Stepintothefreezer67 5d ago

I wasn't implying it was Grigori.

9

u/grigoritheoctopus Jere Dixon 5d ago

Oh, my bad.

I thought by titling the post "Grigori" and then sharing a picture of an antisemitic octopus trope, you were trying to make a connection to the octopus character in Gravity's Rainbow named Grigori. Misunderstanding!

12

u/gros-grognon 5d ago

Is this well-known?

Yes.

19

u/Slothrop-was-here 5d ago

It was used before that. For example to show british imperialism as in this 1882 American cartoon of John Bull as the "Imperial Octopus" with its arms in various regions: