Gothicism in Postmodern Anglo-American Narratives and Media

[Michael J. Hußmann]

jbor at bigpond.com (jbor at bigpond.com) wrote:

> The translator told the guy who wrote the article that 
> he found the title _Gravity's Rainbow_ somewhat meaningless. There's 
> nothing there about convincing Pynchon that the title was meaningless.

The translator needed Pynchon's approval, so he must have approved of
the change. But then, the translator might have given him another
explanation of why he opted for a different title.

On the other hand, I think the literal translation "Der Regenbogen der
Schwerkraft" wouldn't have been that bad, and I never liked "Die Enden
der Parabel" that much. Of course, the parabola is implicit in the
original title: just as sunlight creates the rainbow as a visible arch
in the sky, gravity creates its own, parabolic and invisible arch, the
path of a ballistic missile.

Come to think of it, Pynchon's own titles aren't the most creative part
of his work, are they? Calling a novel "V" after its central, enigmatic
character, or "Mason & Dixon", which is, quite surprisingly, about the
life of Mason and Dixon -- or "The Cying of Lot 49", which is explained
only on the very last page of the novel, and isn't terribly significant
in itself. "Gravity's Rainbow" is probably the best of the lot, because
of its richness in connotations and because it does relate to central
themes of the novel. I get the impression that Pynchon generally doesn't
care that much about titles (which is perfectly OK with me).

- Michael


Michael J. Hußmann

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