LPPM MMV Cornell Originals & clotted Harlem plumbing groaned

[Terrance]

When I first read the book, I was comparing it with my own experience of
the same place, time, and people.  It seemed then that Gnosos and Fariña
were one and the same. It was also great fun recognizing the real-life
counterparts of the other characters, being tickled by what he'd done
with and to them.  Now, nearly twenty years later, seeing a little
further into his method, I think maybe it wasn't so simple. He didn't
just take things that had happened and change names. He really worked
his ass off, but the result is so graceful that the first time around I
was fooled completely. 

1983
Thomas Pynchon
Intoduction to Richard Fariña's 
_Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me_  

               When they shot Malcolm Little down
               On the stage of the Audobon Ballroom,
               When his life ran out through bullet holes
               (Like the people running out then the murder began)
               His blood soaked the floor
               One drop found a crack through the stark
               Pounding thunder-slipped under the stage and began
               Its journey: burrowed through concrete into the cellar,
               Dropped down darkness, exploding like quicksilver
               Pellets of light, panicking rats, paralyzing cockroaches-
               Tunneled through rubble and wrecks of foundations,
               The rocks that buttress the bowels of the city, flowed
               Into pipes and powerlines, the mains and cables of the
               city:
               A thousand fiery seeds.
                
               At that moment,
               Those who drank water where he entered...
               Those who cooked food where he passed...
               Those who burned light while he listened...
               Those who were talking as he went, knew he was water
               Running out of faucets, gas running out of jets, power
               Running out of sockets, meaning running along taut wires
-
               To the hungers of their living. It was said
               Whole slums of clotted Harlem plumbing groaned
               And sundered free that day, and disconnected gas and
               light
               Went on and on and on ...
               They rushed his riddled body on a stretcher
               To the hospital. But the police were too late.
               It had already happened.
                
                
               Raymond R. Patterson