Dreamland and Vineland

[davemarc]

I've been reading Phil Patton's Dreamland (endorsed by Pynchon, published
by Villard) at a very, very slow pace.  It's filled with Pynchonesque
tidbits.  Here's a paragraph I thought I'd share:

"The flying saucer craze of the late forties and early fifties--culminating
perhaps in June and July of 1952, when Washington, D.C., was 'buzzed' by
multiple saucers, recorded by ground observers, radar watchers, and airline
pilots--marched along in neat parallel to McCarthyism and the Red Scare. 
(To the Japanese, sociologists argued, Godzilla stood for the assault of
the B-29s, their incendiary and atomic bombs.)  During the hottest period
of the Cold War, the aliens brought contactees a message of peace.  But
already a darker theme of cover-up was emerging, in the charges of leading
UFO propagandist Donald Keyhoe that 'silencers' were at work and the
government was keeping the truth a secret." (p. 97)

d.