Pynchon Postage Puzzles Experts

[Ghetta Life]

This is the second time this story has been posted to this list.  It was 
debunked as a hoax last time.  The dead ringer is the fact that there is no 
such paper as the "New Orleans Bayou-Tribune."

Ghetta

>From: Dave Monroe <monropolitan at yahoo.com>
>
>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.

_________________________________________________________________
FREE pop-up blocking with the new MSN Toolbar - get it now! 
http://toolbar.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200415ave/direct/01/