rainbow

[RokyE at aol.com]

A rainbow is caused by the interference of light in a medium.  Typicaly, the
rainbow we usualy think of is caused by light passing through dispersed water
droplets in the atmosphere.  It is not a fixed object, but an effect or
"illusion" dependent on the position of the veiwer.  The same effect of
seperating white (actinic) light into its composite spectrum can be observed
by dropping oil in a puddle, where it spreads in a layer of varible
thickness.  Air itself can cause this effect when two pieces of slightly
irregular flatness glass are placed together.  (Newton's Rings)

A real literal "Gravitiy's Rainbow" could be found in Paper Chromography.
This is a technique for seperating chemical components from a solution.  A
simple example would be a felt tip marker on wet paper, but typicaly, in a
labrotory, this is acheived using a large vertical tube filled with very fine
sand.  Gravity pulls the various elements down, leaving them seperated in
distinct layers.

I "see" the title as Slothrop our gravity sun, illuminating the events
surrounding him, *causing* this graceful arc of a novel which shifts
depending on veiwer, has no begining or end willowing off to whereever just
beyond poor tyrones reach.

ps  *color*  exists beyond our perception or ability to name, as it is meerly
flavours of a continous electromagnetic spectrum.