What's in a name?

[rj]

ao
> No one of minimal sanity or maturity would have wanted to mess with Nixon
> or his pals who clearly played for keeps. There is no assurance of who was
> on who's payroll nor is there any certainty of who was running the US
> government at the time in question. Think spooks, ex-spooks, politics, drug
> culture and geography.

Sorry, this misses the point as well. Richard M. Zhlubb is *obviously*
Richard M. Nixon. The name, and the circumstances of the narrative, make
this unmistakeable. Pynchon is messing with the pres, and it would be
immediately obvious to him or to any of his spooks should they have read
it. I'm sure it would have been pointed out (and perhaps someone had a
quick word to the Pulitzer judges about it.) Pynchon names names when he
wants to. Overtly. Courageously so. A historian wouldn't have gotten
away with it, I don't think. Nixon is the *only* one (except maybe Red
Malcolm and the Kenosha Kid/Orson Welles tie-in) who is not named per
se, but the connection is made crystal clear. 

Otoh, many of the major characters in the novel are fictional. Like Geli
Tripping. Like Pirate Prentice. Like Tyrone Slothrop. Like Roger, Jess,
Pudd, Pointy, Enzian, Blicero, Katje, Gottfried, Leni, Franz, Ilse,
Bianca, Greta, Saure etc etc. It is a novel, not docudrama or New
Journalism.

best