OKC and other bombs

[Stuart Moulthrop]

OKC has made me shudder down to the core of my Pynchonism, considering the
congruencies between the Tristero (esp.) and today's rightwing underground
-- or for that matter, the subterranean/paranoid world of _Vineland_ and
the current militia movement.

Actually, the latest from the Unabomber has been more depressing than any
revelations from OKC.  Check out his broadside to the NYT, or the letter to
David Gelernter where he says, essentially, "I'm blowing you up because you
help the economy grow."  For sure, a mad-growth economy is a Bus of Doom,
but what does zero growth presume?  Population controls?  Eugenics?
Euthanasia? -- especially when the opponents of growth are proponents of
terror.  Can you say  "Stalin?"  How about "Pol Pot?"

Of course, lots of people read _Lot 49_ and _Gravity's Rainbow_ and
_Vineland_ and do *not* turn into letter-bombers.  It's just that I get
this feeling that at least one person read those texts (or others like
them) and *did*...

Yrs. in heresy,
Stuart