Thomas Pynchon's V. (1963)
Read Professor Irwin Corey's acceptance speech for Pynchon's 1974 National Book Award for Gravity's Rainbow.
Also, have a look at Douglas Kløvedal Lannark's exhaustive documenting of "love" in Gravity's Rainbow.
K
Kalahari
229; desert region in Africa, situated in southwest Botswana, southeast Südwest and northernmost South Africa. Though called a desert, it is almost entirely covered with grass and woodland, except in Südwest where it is bare sand; [MAP]
Kalkfontein South
229; village in Südwest near which is the white outpost where Mondaugen first arrives from Germany; [MAP]
Kameeldoorn tree
262; from Hartwin Alfred Gebhardt: Kameeldoring (Afrikaans). Kameldorn (German). Literally: "camel-thorn" tree. Sort of the unofficial National tree of Namibia; the wood is very hard, ideal for 'braais' (grilling). A Namibian/German adaptation of the song Horst Wessell (later a popular Nazi marching song) was the Namibian hymn until independence in 1989, and is still sung defiantly by the (mostly white Afrikaaner) Rugby crowds, in the original German. It starts "So hart wie Kameldornholz ist unser Land..." (as hard as camel thorn wood is our land/country).
Karas range
277; [MAP]
Katz, Manfred
120; preceeded Zeitruss as boss of Alligator Patrol
Kautsky's Independents
242; Karl Joseph Kautsky (1854-1938) was a German socialist leader, a disciple of Karl Marx and a critic of Bolshevism. In 1883 he founded and edited Die Neue Zeit ("The Modern Times").
Keetmanshoop
261; town in southern Südwest; 269; [MAP]
Kelly, Grace (1929-82)
225; American actress who starred in, among other films, High Noon (1952) and Rear Window (1954). In 1956 she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco and retired from the screen. She was killed in a car accident; See also Rainier, Prince
Khan
266; mine in Südwest
Khartoum
66; the capital of Sudan, located near the junction of the White Nile and Blue Nile rivers in central Sudan. In 1885 the Mahdists, led by Muhammed Ahmed ibn Abdallah (who had declared himself Mahdi--"the expected one"--in 1881), revolted against Egyptian rule and laid siege to Khartoum, defeating the British forces, led by General Charles Gordon (the Egyptian-appointed governor general of the Sudan). The British were assisting the Egyptians (who controled northern Sudan). A combined British-Egyptian offensive, led by Lord Kitchener, defeated the Mahdists in 1898. The following year Sudan was claimed as a condominium under joint administration of Britain and Egypt; 167; 171; 172; See also Fuzzy-Wuzzy; Gordon, General; Kitchener, Sirdar; Mahdi; Mohammed Ahmed; Sudan
Khevenhüller-Metsch, Count
68; Austrian consul in Alexandria; Etymology
Kholsky
404; "huge and homicidal" Russian expatriate tailor
Khrushchev, Nikita (1894-1971)
366; Soviet leader who became, on the death of Stalin in 1953, first secretary of the All Union party and, three years later, denounced Stalinism. In 1957 he demoted potential rivals Malenkov, Molotov and Kaganovich. He was deposed in 1964 and forced to retire. He was the Soviet leader during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. See also Malenkov
Kiel revolt
260; Kiel is the capital of Schleswig-Holstein province in western Germany
Kilroy
31; cartoon figure with long nose dangling over fence; 377; "Profane [...] hung his nose over the edge of the roof," 388; "Grandmaster of Valletta," 436; history of, 436; 440; 441; 443
King Kong
421; "the well-known ape"; [KK in Gravity's Rainbow]
Kingsway
308; main drag in Valletta, Malta; formerly Strada Reale; 333; 382; 428
Kitchener, Sirdar (1850-1915)
66; "England's newest colonial hero"; General Horatio Kitchener, sirdar of the Egyptian army from 1890, led the British army in the Sudan which, in 1898, defeated the army of the Mahdi's successor, the Khalifa, at the Battle of Omdurman; 69; See also Fuzzy-Wuzzy; Gordon, General; Khartoum; Mohammed Ahmed; Mahdi; Sudan
kites
"a jet-black kite would come to hang in the sky," 233; "a morning quiet that had known only visiting kites and wind," 236; "a gay summer kite," 249; "A kite lit lower down on the roof and began to peck at the wine." 276; "like a dark kite!" 395
Knights of St. John
316; The order founded in 1048 and became one of the great martial orders of the Crusades, guarding hostels for pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem. St. John the Baptist was the patron saint of the Knights. The Order had become predominantly military when it moved its headquarters to Malta in 1529 and became Knights of Malta. It had reverted to its original mission of providing comfort when it moved its headquarters to Rome in 1834. According to Baedeker's Mediterranean, "[In 1522] arrived the Knights of St. John, banished from Rhodes by the Turks, and to that Order in 1530 Malta, Gozo, and Tripoli were granted by Emp. Charles V of Spain. The knights then took the name of Knights of Malta and gallantly defended their island, which became one of the great bulwarks of Christianity, against the repeated attacks of the Turks. The most fearful siege they sustained was that of Borgo [Birgù] in 1565, when they were attacked by the whole forces of Suleiman the Great under Dragut, Mustapha, and Piali. Even though they were outnumbered 20,000 to 9,000, they eventually beat back the Turks. In consequence of that event the Grand Master Jean de la Valette founded and fortified the new town of La Valette (Valletta), which became the capital and was deemed impregnable."; statues of, in Metro, 437; "they roam the streets after sunset" 448-49; [MORE]; See also Vallette
Knoop, LtJG
219; communications officer on USS Scaffold, Anapolis graduate, Pig's henchman; 372
Konig
264; German: "king"; trooper who shoots old woman digging onions in Südwest
kopje
259; a small hill, esp. on the African veld
Krupp
259; largest steel concern and municians manufacturer in Germany
kultur-position
255; German: level of cultural development
