The pattern: Significant nouns, reflective of the Germanic roots of Old English. Uncapitalised nouns in the first paragraph include: shoes, slaps, afternoon, rear, years, table, side-benches, branch, family.Ĭapitalised abstract nouns include: Arcs, Sides, Descent, Dither, Fly. that the Cold War is over now ('snow-balls have flown their Arcs'), and that it was all a game, a charade.Īt first there seems to be no discernible pattern: caps seem accented to be rhythmically stressed, as in reading poetry. One possible interpretation of this beautiful opening, concerning the 'snow-balls', is that it is a sly reference to the recent (assumed) ending of the Cold War, i.e. This sets the tone of the whole novel, in the first sentence. Here, Pynchon's first image is again the image of a projectile, flying in a parabolic trajectory - only this time, it is a snowball thrown by a child. An arc is the precursor to utter destruction. In the title alone, the 'Rainbow' of 'Gravity' is the trajectory of a rocket. In Gravity's Rainbow, the arc - or the parabola - always had a sinister implication. Portmanteau of 'latitudes and longitudes' with 'arrivals and departures'.

Mason dixon pynchon