AtD, another violet allusion from another great TRP influence

[David Payne]

On Thu, 29 May 2008 (12:06:10 -0400), Laura (kelber at mindspring.com) wrote:

> Could the violet document be a mimeograph? Still have fond childhood memories of inhaling that purple ink!

Yes! I think that you're on to something here! (Not to discount Mark's exploration of Pynchon's symbolic use of the color--Pynchon's certainly able to fold symbolism into description.)

Which makes me wonder if this is perhaps a real mimeographed map that Pynchon found buried in some archives somewhere. 

Something like this: http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/balkan/Maps/3.jpg

Though that map certainly doesn't fit the description quite right ... I still think that the map might really be the Congo. De Bottle was concerned with protecting anarchist from themselves and I wonder he let Cyprian jump to the conclusion that the map was the Balkans, perhaps somehow foreseeing that this would lead the threesome to the place they needed to be. (At the same time, the map does seem to function a forecast of upcoming military events, so....)
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