the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow

[Brian D. McCary]

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From: "Bonnie Surfus (ENG)" <surfus at chuma.cas.usf.edu>
> 
> After all, if the physics of Pynchon is perfectly
> Newtonian, the rocket has to land at the end of
> Gravity's rainbow, but it hasn't yet.

I believe it lands at the space between the ending and the beginning of 
the text-just another bomb.
I think I believe this-still working with it.

-Bonnie

> > David Pelovitz- 
PELOVTZD at Acfcluster.nyu.edu > 
> 
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Newtonian physics only tells us where and when the rocket will land.
If the window of time which we observe does not include the impact
instant, the rocket doesn't have to land....
	As with much of Pynchon, it seems to me that on this point, 
he has chosen to purposely ignore the issue which springs to mind first
in a typical novel (where and when will the rocket hit?) in order to
emphasize that it is not the action itself, but the forces behind the
action which are important.  This relates back to the question of 
mentioning Hitler w/r/t WWII.  (By the way, I noticed that he does
get mentioned, quite early on, cited as an "inspired man" (!!!) 
[page 37 of my dogeared Bantam paperback])

	Another angle might be that while gravity is obviously
Newtonian, the rainbow, being an electromagnetic phenomenon, falls 
more in what we might term the "Maxwellian" (there's that name, again)
world.  Gravity's rainbow must carry characteristics from each world.  
One of the interesting properties of the classical rainbow is that it
is really an optical illusion, the refracted image of a source, broken
into it's spectral components, untouchable, unreachable, and having, 
ahem, no end....


Brian McCary