A Paranoid Companion to Thomas Pynchon

Proverbs for Paranoids

Thomas Pynchon's Proverbs for Paranoids appear in Gravity's Rainbow. Page numbers from the 1973 paperback edition appear in parentheses:

“You may never get to touch the Master, but you can tickle his creatures.”(237)
“The innocence of the creatures is in inverse proportion to the immorality of the Master.” (241)
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.” (251)
“You hide, they seek.” (262)
“Paranoids are not paranoids because they’re paranoid, but because they keep putting themselves, fucking idiots, deliberately into paranoid situations.”(292)

I have found or invented some additional Proverbs for Paranoids to guide our thinking:

"Entropy is just unavailable information.” (John Wheeler, A Journey into Gravity and Spacetime,(New York: John Wily & Son, Inc., 2000), 221.
The depth of the conspiracy is measured by the breadth of the disinformation.
Once you have the proper hermeneutic, the interpretation is simple.
Hitler got out of hand. Fascism works best when corporations dictate the wars to be fought.
Beware of Reichstag Fires and Lone Gunmen.
“Time and the Ocean and some Guiding Star and High Cabal have made us what we are.” (Winston Churchill)
“If everyone is our enemy, then we are not paranoid.” (Henry Kissinger)
"I'm sorry to tell you this, but there will always be more wars." (John McCain)

"Connect the dots? What dots?" (attributed to Benny Profane)