'Togetherness'

[Otto]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Wright AIA" <mwaia at yahoo.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 28, 2004 3:08 PM
Subject: Re: 'Togetherness'

> Howdy Otto
>
> Forgive me, I've been out of the loop for a while and haven't been
> following this, but:
>

Hi Mark, fine to hear again from you!

> Are you saying that Pynchon somehow knew that Crazy Ivan was putting
> missiles into Cuba before Kennedy did?

That was known quite a while before the actual September-crisis came. I knew
that the Russians were about to deploy missiles close to the USA because I
was a soldier's kid and there were continuous alarms in the village were I
lived throughout the Summer-holidays. We even had prepared a special room in
the cellar.

Why shoudn't our man not know this while working for Boeing & obviously
having more information than the ususal citizen as his articles prove.

I could imagine that Boeing at Seattle was a possible target. I mean, if I
were living close to a military base I would move away as far as possible
during such a crisis.

On "Crazy Ivan":
"Elsewhere in the world, in April of 1962, 15 U.S. Jupiter missiles in
Turkey become operational, on the border of the Soviet Union. All positions
are reported "ready and manned" by U.S. personnel - ready to launch against
the Soviet Union at any moment. The missiles are armed with 1.45 megaton
warheads, 97 times the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Fatality projections for each missile aim at one million civilians."

So who was the lunetic?

> And that his leaving Boeing just
> then had something to do with the Cuban missile crisis?
>

That has been my question. Maybe his contract had just ended and they didn't
want to renew it.

> Or are you pointing out that his leaving Boing couldn't have had
> anything to do with Cuba?
>

I just discovered the coincidence of quitting the job in September, the
month of the Cuban Missile Crisis which has been the first major political
event I can remember (the second was Nov. 22, 1963) because all the
grown-ups were talking about a possible nuclear war. The Russians were about
to attack us, driving their panzers on our beautiful autobahns, raping all
the women, forcing the men and boys to Siberian slave labor and taking away
all the watches. I did not want to give away my watch.

> Or that the Russians moved into Cuba because that pesky Pynchon was
> finally out of the way?
>
> Mark
>

That's the best solution I could think of but I fear it's just a dream.

Otto