ATDTDA (5.1) - The Etienne-Louis Malus

[David Casseres]

I can't help thinking of those many different versions of "The Mummy's
Curse," in which a group of scientists, against the earnest advice of their
guides, take an artifact out of its concealment and ship it home for their
museum.  And as soon as they get to New York, it breaks out of its
confinement and causes havoc.

Dr. Vormance himself points out the parallel on p. 141.  And while I can't
find the text just now, isn't the "nunatak" described as pyramidal in shape?

Just a wild-ass guess, but I think if you actually dug through all those old
movies, you'd eventually stumble across a name that looked like "Vormance."

On 3/20/07, Monte Davis <monte.davis at bms.com> wrote:
>
> Robin:
>
> >>I'm sure we'll get into more detail, but the
> >>"Vormance Expedition" is Pynchon's vision of 9/11, moved into the
> >>time zone and period ambience of Against the Day.
> >>
> I'm with you that the *destruction of the city* has no other resonance
> nearly as loud as 9/11, but I'm not sure that extends to the expedition
> itself -- which as davemarc says, owes more to Shelley, Poe, and
> Lovecraft.
>
> Whatever we (or for that matter Al Qaeda or the conspiracy buff on the
> corner) may advance as the "causes of" or "reasons  for" 9/11, I don't
> see how they map to "scientists dig up and bring home an ancient
> artifact, suggestive of pre- or non-human origin,  that they should have
> left untouched."
>
>
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