Pynchon Postage Puzzles Experts

[Dave Monroe]

New Orleans, August 8, 1996
Pynchon Postage Puzzles Experts

by V. Bugatti New Orleans Bayou-Tribune

In a lecture given at the Fiat Lux graphic arts and
sciences convention held here in New Orleans August
4-9, detective Cati Laporte unveiled a set of postage
stamps which prove that the Thomas Pynchon novel isn't
so fictitious after all.

Often written off along with other conspiracy theory
novels, Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49
describes a renegade postal system which produces
unsettling stamps that ridicule the status quo. These
very stamps have been discovered by Cati Laporte, a
New York based independant detective who specializes
in locating lost icons, such as theses stamps.

Ms. Laporte discovered the stamps among a collection
which was purchased by one of her clients through an
estate auction, she declined to state the name of the
client or of the auction at which the stamps were
purchased. Several stamp experts have been contacted
to help determine the authenticity of the stamps.

"These stamps are irrefutable proof that the
underground Post Office described in Thomas Pynchon's
novel did indeed exist." said Dr. Franklin B. Israel,
a former federal employee and current professor of
criminology and document anaylsis at George Washington
University.

Others are not so sure. G.F. Sebastian of the
Smithsonian Institute has also analyzed the stamps and
believes them to be recently produced. "I'm certain
these stamps were produced in the last ten years", Mr.
Sebastian claimed, "there never was any Lot 49, it's
just a novel."

While the debate about the authenticity of the stamps
remains open for document analyists and historians,
some claim that there is no question the stamps are
genuine. "I worked as a postal inspector for fifty
years, and I know for a fact that the Lot 49
conspiracy did exist, and with some amount of success.
First the Postmaster General, and later the F.B.I.,
supressed the records about our investigation." stated
formal U.S.P.S. employee George H. Huntington.

The lecture at Fiat Lux described the antisocial
aspects of the stamp designs and explained the truths
within the fictionalization of the conspiracy in
Pynchon's novel. Some conference attendees were
unaware of this underground postal conspiracy, the
predecessor to many mail-art and mail-fraud movements
today, but others were sufficiently informed to be
astounded by the findings.

"This is an unbelievable discovery," said Fox M.
Carter of Canada's Advanced Imaging Laboratory, "proof
that this conspiracy existed is proof that the U.S.
government had supressed their evidence about it. If
they did that with the Lot 49 incident, what other
fictionalizations are merely attempts by clever people
to leak the truth in a veil of fiction?" While the
debate rages about the authenticity of the stamps in
the academic world, Ms. Laporte is displaying the
stamps which she believes are genuine. "Some people
think they're fakes," she said, "but there is a lot of
cynicism today. People want to seem smarter than their
friends, so they ignore the evidence and claim to have
the answers."

The stamps will be on display until the 9th at the
Fiat Lux conference, located in the downtown Marriott.
For event information call the Fiat Lux hotline at
588-2682. 

http://www.canuck.com/Fire/pynchon.html

Fiat Lux
August 1996, New Orleans.

Micro Art Show 

http://www.canuck.com/Fire/fire.html

F.I.R.E.

First Issue Reserved Edition: a collection of
fictitious U.S. postage stamps. 

These stamps do not depict imaginary countries or
peoples, they just wish they were U.S. POSTAGE STAMPS.

http://www.canuck.com/Fire/

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