context for Pynchon's Foreword: NYRB re The New Newsspeak

[Malignd]

And who is hardheaded Russell Smith, offering up this
stern, clear-eyed critique of the way battle reportage
should be done?  Who sneers at euphemism, yet is still
so bold as to describe a bombing as "a peripeteia in
the war's narrative." 

He's peeved, this Smith, whoever he is, in a terrible
snit that "some announcers have even repeated the
egregious Pentagon neologism 'attrited.'  And he
doesn't know if he's "more offended by the
insidiousness of this euphemism or by the absurdity of
its grammar."  And who could blame him?

Could this be William Shawcross, using a pseudonym?

No, it's the author of THE PRINCESS AND THE
WHISKHEADS:

"A beautiful princess rules the tiny kingdom of
Liralove, a kingdom famous for its lush gardens, for
its art made from finely spun wires, and for its great
sculptural towers, the Architectons, which serve no
purpose but to please the eye. But the princess has
been neglecting her duties as ruler, and has not
noticed the discontent that has grown around her rule
particularly among the youth of the capital city. She
hears of a mysterious, secretive sect that lives
illegally inside the great Architectons ... "




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