Watergate and GR epigraph: source

[Tore Rye Andersen]

>It's funny how this thread has spun off in the direction it has. I hold
>my hands up and admit I totally misinterpreted what Moody was saying. On
>the question of Watergate refs in GR, I reckon Paul M has it right that
>'Watergate' as the world came to know it, hadn't really unfurled by the
>time Pynchon would have been making any final adjustments. On the other
>hand, what Dave posted...
>
><< By Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
>Washington Post Staff Writers
>Tuesday, October 10, 1972; Page A01
>
>FBI agents have established that the Watergate bugging incident stemmed
>from a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage conducted on
>behalf of President Nixon's re-election and directed by officials of the
>White House and the Committee for the Re-election of the President....>>
>
>....is worth noting. Ok the whole thing wasn't out in the open by then
>but by Oct 72 we have a reference to Nixon's White House running "a
>massive campaign of political spying and sabotage".
>
>
>Cheers
>JC

It seems likely that Pynchon had already written the Richard M. 
Zhlubb-section prior to the early inklings of what only later came to be 
known as Watergate. The original epigraph to part IV - the Joni Mitchell 
song from 1968 - indicate that Pynchon had already planned to make the 
parrallels between the setting of the novel and the 
counterculture/Counterforce of the 60'es apparent in the final section of 
the novel. (This is not the same as reducing GR to a parable of the 60'es: 
it is so much more than that, of course, but the planned inclusion of a song 
from '68, plus of course the closing section with Richard M. Zhlubb, still 
seem to hint that GR is to some extent a comment on the political climate of 
the 60'es.)
The late change of the epigraph is probably a reaction to the unfolding 
Watergate affair. Since Pynchon had already included Sick Dick in part IV of 
the novel, it would be a natural - and easy - step to reinforce this aspect 
of GR by changing the epigraph when the early news about the bugging 
incident surfaced in 72. Just a matter of serendipity, I guess...
Well - that's just my theory. I guess we'll never know until one of us gets 
hold of that quadrille paper manuscript on ebay. I bid $50!