Abstract
In his brief essay Origin of Pynchon's Tchitcherine, Steven Weisenburger catalogues many of extensive similarities between that character and Pavel Chichikov, protagonist of Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls, even arguing that [p]arts of Gravity's Rainbow have a compelling affinity with Gogol's unfinished prose epic, and Tchitcherine is principal link between two texts (42). While ChichikovTchitcherine correlation may well be principal link, it is enriched and extended by appearance in Gravity's Rainbow of a parody of Gogol himself in person of Tchitcherine's colleague Shatsk, the notorious Leningrad nose-fetishist, who carries a black satin handkerchief to Party congresses and yes, more than once has been unable to refrain from reaching out and actually stroking noses of powerful officials (352). The antecedent author's refraction into one of Pynchon's secondary characters deserves a gloss as well as a brief sketch of some possible connections to Gravity's Rainbow's larger themes.
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