Rainbow & Parabola (was NP)

[jbor]

on 25/7/04 5:30 AM, jbor wrote:
> 
>> And, of
>> course, a rainbow is neither a parable nor a parabola.
> 
> I guess there is a faint possibility that Pynchon, an undergraduate physics
> major and missile specialist at Boeing, in retitling his novel (it was
> originally going to be called "mindless pleasures", cf. GR 270, 681) didn't
> realise that a rainbow isn't a parabola, or that he was working on the
> principle that "near enough is good enough".
> 
> The only way to equate the trajectory of a projectile under the force of
> gravity with the arc of a rainbow is via the rhetorical scheme (or trope) of
> Parabola, defined as a "resemblance mystical" (Puttenham, _The Arte of
> English Poesy_, 1569), and thus as a function of language and communication
> (some might say intersubjectivity, or poetic licence, or "transformation",
> or even "spin").

Point here being that, yes, the V-2 rocket's arc is a (if not the) primary
referent of the novel's title, but that as with those other phenomena to
which it is connected in the text: the curve of a banana or an erect penis,
the earth's orbit around the sun, S-shaped spokes and architecture, a
theatre's proscenium arch, running water warping the square holes of a
harmonica or the passage of human life and death, and more; it is a literary
conceit which makes it so.

Hollander's theory regarding the novel's title is a clever construction, I
admit, and I hadn't realised that it was the source of M. Ryckx's attack on
Glenn until another of Chuck's several proxies here cited it. But if Pynchon
had intended a bilingual pun on the phrase "a grave parable" in the title
then it's ironic that the German-speaking translators missed it, and that
the pun (as well as Pynchon's original title) is also lost in their 1981
"translation" of it as _Die Enden der Parabel_ (i.e. "the end of the
rainbow/parable/parabola").

Btw, Chuck told me on a couple of occasions that he doesn't post to the
list, or that he does so only through pseudonyms and proxies, because he
believes that someone of his stature would intimidate other posters.

best

> Another point to note is that a rainbow is an optical effect experienced by
> a viewer, and that it is always therefore dependent upon the individual
> viewer's vantage and perception.

>> 
>> While it's true that both terms ("parable" and "parabola") in their various
>> different meanings or contexts do derive from the same Greek word (parabole)
>> they are not the same words at all (it's like saying "pasta" and "paste" are
>> the same words -- beware the vermicelli at that dinner table!) And, of
>> course,
>> a rainbow is neither a parable nor a parabola.
>> 
>> http://www.etymonline.com/p2etym.htm