Pavlov and the Book

[David Casseres]

Craig Clark sez:

>...mebbe Pointsman is meant to be a parody of Skinner? Just how did 
>BF spend the war anyway?

Hoo hoo!  Wasn't it Skinner who did the work on conditioning pigeons to 
peck at high-contrast spots on a screen so that they could be suicide 
pilots in glide-bombs to be launched against enemy ships at sea?  Or am I 
imagining that it was Skinner?  In any case, now that I think of that, 
it's amazing Pynchon's Pavlovians didn't do any work with a Pigeon Pyotr 
(or pouter).

Cheers,
David