the rainbow

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/20/2005 10:56:22 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
michael at michael-hussmann.de writes:

Given  how he makes short shrift of some of his earlier works in the
introduction,  I suppose the title was his idea. BTW, the title's German
translation  ("Spätzünder") isn't literal, but captures the meaning
precisely.  Literally, a "Spätzünder" is a bomb exploding only some time
after it was  expected to go off, but is usually applied metaphorically
to a pupil or  student who realizes his or her true potential only quite
late in his  career.





I think the english title suggests a change in
ownership. The "bow" is Gravity's and no longer
a symbol of the covenant twixt God & the jews.
 
What does that mean? Maybe, as the novel seems
to suggest, a new order, based not on the old
dispensation: a hybrid of rationalism and semi-
suppressed "age of miracle" revelation, but, a
new regime, presided over by the Rocket and
forces unseen.
 
The German translation seems to reiterate that
the old dispensation has exhausted itself, and
that it is time to confront what that means.
 
Bandwraith
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20050820/b6a80113/attachment.html>