GRGR(17) Hauptstufe! (380.18)

[rj]

jo
> This was discussed a while back: until Brennschluss, the rocket's flight is
> (ideally) a straight line; at the point of Brennschluss its flight path becomes
> (again ideally) a parabola (to which the line is tangiential). The middle of the
> flight, i.e. the top of the parabola, comes a good deal later; at that point the
> tangent to the path is horizontal. Interesting things about these two moments;
> but I think of the midpoint as "the zero". Maybe Pynchon does not.

So, as far as gravity's "rainbow" is concerned, the very top of the
rainbow (arc, rocket path, parabola, whatever) is in the middle, isn't
it? I'm not a maths genius but if the line is tangential to the parabola
then if you plot the parabola back to a starting point you would get a
regular arc (or would you, allowing that the earth's surface itself is
round?). The "rainbow" is metaphor (it isn't really a parabola of course
but it is the name of the book and the title does, I think, refer to the
rocket trajectory as well as whatever else in the text -- "gravity"
serves as metaphor in the text as well, come to think of it, for the
entropic decline of civilisations among other things), and Mr P with all
that science/maths smarts that he displays in the narrative, and that we
know of from his early Cornell days and his years at Boeing, well ... it
certainly bears thinking about I'd say, wouldn't you?

best

(where's that hilary when you need her?)