Pynchon's titles (was ...

[jbor at bigpond.com]

>> 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.
>
> Yes. In English there is also the idea of "gravity" (seriousness), 
> gravitas, grave (and that word's various denotations) etc. (There is 
> also the rhetorical trope of "parabola", or "resemblance mystickal", 
> which the German title picks up on.)

Also, the pluralisation ("die enden") opens up additional meanings, 
possibilities (i.e. "ends", as opposed to "means", is an alternate 
meaning, in English at least, but in German too I'd guess, but the idea 
that there is more than one "end", or final point, provides scope for 
those subjunctive hopes and dreams Pynchon is so fond of). I'd assume 
that most German readers would also be well aware of what the English 
title was, and so the notion of "the end of the rainbow" gets factored 
into the equation there as well.

Should also have noted that there are several relevant meanings of 
"lot" as well as of "crying".

best