There is a certain paragraph that caught my fancy on page 460.

"You come in--just hit town, here in the heart of downtown Peenemunde, hey, whatcha do for fun around here? hauling your provincial valise with a few shirts, a copy of the Handbuch, perhaps Cranz's Lehrbuch der Ballistik. You have memorized Ackeret...some Volta Congress papers. But the terror will not go away. This is faster than sound, than the words she spoke across the room so full of sunlight, the jazz band on the radio when you could not sleep, the hoarse Heils among the pale generators and from the executive-crammed galleries overhead..." (there's more good stuff but I'm not typing it all up)

The passage about the elongated S-shaped tunnels seemed to highlight the contrast between the scientific and softer, human aspects of the characters, especially Slothrop. On one hand the tunnels could be interpreted as a double integral sign-- the text goes on to explain this more in depth with lots of scientific jargon. "That is one meaning of the shape of the tunnels down here in the Mittelwerke. Another may be the ancient rune that stands for the yew tree, or Death" (306). The companion explains that "the rune SS signified a tree symbolizing strife" (190). Honestly, I didn't fully understand that one. My favorite interpretation, however, is the final one:

Page 279 has my favorite random phallic reference. The reason I like it is because it is especially random (in my opinion) or, if not random, totally excessive. In short, it amuses me.

"And so, too, the legend of the black scapeape we cast down like Lucifer from the tallest errection in the world has come, in the fullness of time, to generate its own children, running around inside Germany even now--the Schwarzkommando, whom Mitchell Prettyplace, even, could not anticipate."

So...I've reread that paragraph...and chuckle because it's getting just excessive. It's getting hard to even take such images seriously.