Literary Calendar for 12/18

[Otto Sell]

Dedalus, I'm ashamed having forgotten this, thanks for reminding.

I've just checked the "Wehrmachtsberichte" (propagandistic German-WW-2-radio
announcements collected in a three-volume book) and there's no V-2 attack on
London mentioned for the 18th, only attacks on Liege (Lüttich) and Antwerp
this day. The Wehrmacht-German "synonym" for this is: Fernfeuer (distant
fire) or "Fernkampfwaffen" - since London is well mentioned on the 19th
(today) I believe that this info is correct and Pynchon chose a day with no
historical V-2 attack to open his book. This is a fictional rocket.

Otto

----- Original Message -----
From: Dedalus <dedalus204 at mediaone.net>
To: Doug Heredos (W) <doug.heredos at radisys.com>; Gary Millman
<MillmanG at rotaryintl.org>; Jack Tempest <Jacktempest at cs.com>; Popilius
<Popilius at yahoo.com>; Pynchon-L <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2000 12:12 AM
Subject: Literary Calendar for 12/18


> For those of you who observe this date in literary history:
>
> "A screaming comes across the sky.  It has happened before, but there is
> nothing to compare it to now."  So begins Thomas Pynchon's _Gravity's
> Rainbow_ (1973), which opens on December 18th, 1944 in bomb-riddled
> London.
>