Pig Bodine
Encyclopedia
Seaman "Pig" Bodine is a fictional character appearing in many novels written by Thomas Pynchon
. Bodine appears in V.
(1963), and recurs in Gravity's Rainbow
(1973). Characters named Bodine also appear in Mason & Dixon
(1997) and Against the Day
(2006). He also occurs in the short-story "Low-lands
" (1960, 1984). A character called "Fender-Belly Bodine," presumably an ancestor of "Pig," appears as a seaman in Mason & Dixon
. First developed in V. as sidekick and comic foil to protagonist Benny Profane, Bodine reappears (set a decade or more earlier) in Gravity's Rainbow. Another seafaring Bodine, referred to only as "O.I.C." (Officer in Command), briefly makes a cameo in Against the Day
, again in an appearance with no obvious purpose besides as an intertextual in-joke.
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
. Bodine appears in V.
V.
V. is the debut novel of Thomas Pynchon, published in 1963. It describes the exploits of a discharged U.S. Navy sailor named Benny Profane, his reconnection in New York with a group of pseudo-bohemian artists and hangers-on known as the Whole Sick Crew, and the quest of an aging traveller named...
(1963), and recurs in Gravity's Rainbow
Gravity's Rainbow
Gravity's Rainbow is a postmodern novel written by Thomas Pynchon and first published on February 28, 1973.The narrative is set primarily in Europe at the end of World War II and centers on the design, production and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the German military, and, in particular, the quest...
(1973). Characters named Bodine also appear in Mason & Dixon
Mason & Dixon
Mason & Dixon is a postmodernist novel by American author Thomas Pynchon published in 1997. It centers on the collaboration of the historical Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in their astronomical and surveying exploits in Cape Colony, Saint Helena, Great Britain and along the Mason-Dixon line in...
(1997) and Against the Day
Against the Day
Against the Day is a novel by Thomas Pynchon. The narrative takes place between the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the time immediately following World War I and features more than a hundred characters spread across the United States, Europe, Mexico, Central Asia, and "one or two places not strictly...
(2006). He also occurs in the short-story "Low-lands
Slow Learner
Slow Learner is the 1984 published collection of six early novellas by the American novelist Thomas Pynchon, originally published in various sources between 1959 and 1964.The book is also notable for its introduction, written by Pynchon...
" (1960, 1984). A character called "Fender-Belly Bodine," presumably an ancestor of "Pig," appears as a seaman in Mason & Dixon
Mason & Dixon
Mason & Dixon is a postmodernist novel by American author Thomas Pynchon published in 1997. It centers on the collaboration of the historical Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in their astronomical and surveying exploits in Cape Colony, Saint Helena, Great Britain and along the Mason-Dixon line in...
. First developed in V. as sidekick and comic foil to protagonist Benny Profane, Bodine reappears (set a decade or more earlier) in Gravity's Rainbow. Another seafaring Bodine, referred to only as "O.I.C." (Officer in Command), briefly makes a cameo in Against the Day
Against the Day
Against the Day is a novel by Thomas Pynchon. The narrative takes place between the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the time immediately following World War I and features more than a hundred characters spread across the United States, Europe, Mexico, Central Asia, and "one or two places not strictly...
, again in an appearance with no obvious purpose besides as an intertextual in-joke.