At the mountains of madness..

[Doug Millison]

For the record, I checked Gravity's Rainbow out of the library at Camp
Howze, a U.S. Army base in the Republic of Korea about 8 kilometers south
of the DMZ and the peace-treaty village of Panmunjom (sp?) on them Main
Supply Route to Seoul (known as the "bowling alley" at the time to U.S.
commanders who planned war games in anticipation of the next invasion from
the north), in 1973. I read it in a little cold water rented room in the
village just outside our security compound walls, when I could get a pass
(that was easy because, I was Radar O'Reilly and made up the pass list of
those who were permitted to leave the base each evening from our company).
GR was an intellectual thrill, a complete escape, but, given my
geo-political circumstances, I also found it fairly easy to click in to
some of the deeper themes of the book. It was an eye-opener in every way.

Ahh, youth...

At 2:40 PM 7/24/97, Sojourner wrote:
>I know I would love to hear how you came to read Pynchon,
>whether it was from a school assignment long ago or a recommendation
>of a friend.  I'm sure we'd all love to know.
>


D O U G  M I L L I S O N ||||||||||| millison at online-journalist.com