Rainbow & Parabola (was NP)

[jbor]

on 27/7/04 1:16 PM, jbor wrote:

> Just in pondering the "a grave parable" theory regarding the title

or rather, the impressionistic rendering of the title into German from back
in 1981 -- "Die Enden der Parabel", which translates into English as "the
end of the rainbow/parable/parabola" -- that the theory derives from

> it
> occurred to me that the whole text of GR can be read as an epitaph on a
> grave. There's the fatal rocket screaming across the sky at the outset, and
> the "hymn" inscribed on the final page as we approach the apocalypse. RIP
> Planet Earth; Pynchon as pomo Emily Dickinson. Of course, if we did manage
> to obliterate our world then there wouldn't be a headstone left behind to
> commemorate it either, which might be part of the reason why the novel
> appears as if it is falling apart in the final section, the author suddenly
> seeming more and more acutely self-conscious about the futility of it all.

best