Noting that Thomas Pynchon's novel 'Gravity's Rainbow' (1973), in which paranoia is an important theme, has resisted fruitful analyses focusing on paranoid pathologies among its characters (e.g., McHale, B., 1987), it is argued that the paranoia functions primarily on the discursive level, i.e., in the rigid metaphorological structure of its "labyrinthine" plot, which is found to dominate both the novel's form and content. It is asserted that the text opens up traditional dichotomous metaphors by placing one element in an "inside" world governed by paranoia and the lack of chance or coincidence, and the opposite element in an outside "zone" that orbits around the paranoid center's gravity and in which metaphorical elements as well as characters are fully interchangeable. Seven such metaphorical pairs are discussed, i.e. (listing the inside elements first), one and zero, inside and outside, white and black market, cause and effect, fact and fiction, and elite and preterite. The significance of the rocket is moreover identified as the catalyst for the metaphorical "explosions" related to phallic symbolism. (S. Paul in LLBA 1999, vol. 33, n. 1)