CoL49: (2) Giants of the Aerospace Industry

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Great postings, Robin, and thanks for filling the vacuum in my hosting stint.  I've been granted a brief run of low-paid work - unfortunately, an offer I'm too unemployed to refuse.  I'll try to keep on track, but I appreciate the help.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
>Sent: May 11, 2009 11:21 AM
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: CoL49: (2) Giants of the Aerospace Industry
>
>On May 11, 2009, at 12:38 AM, Tore Rye Andersen wrote:
>
>> Robin:
>>
>>> "Yoyodyne" points to Rocketdyne, one of the giants of the space
>>> industry during NASA's heyday, developing their company by reverse-
>>> engineering V-2's and expanding into making rocket engines for ICBM's
>>> and the sixties space program.
>>
>> Good stuff about Rocketdyne, Robin - thanks. In addition to  
>> Rocketdyne,
>> I think it is safe to assume that Yoyodyne also has a lot in common  
>> with
>> Boeing, which Pynchon of course knew at first hand.
>
>While looking for the connection of Rocketdyne to Boeing, found this  
>re-post of a "Pynchon Notes" article on Pynchon's writing at Boeing:
>
>	Early in 1960, after having graduated from Cornell and while
>	writing V., Thomas Pynchon moved to Seattle and began
>	working for the Boeing Airplane Company. What Pynchon did
>	while working at Boeing has puzzled scholars almost from the
>	moment of the very private author's literary debut. When we try
>	to delve into his stint at Boeing--first mentioned by Lewis
>	Nichols and Dick Schaap--we reach dead ends or find
>	conflicting information. Yet Pynchon's time at Boeing is perhaps
>	the most documented period of his life, and over the years a
>	number of interesting (though not always accurate) bits of
>	information have emerged.
>
>	Here I first recount the previous scholarship on this phase of
>	Pynchon's career and consider its weaknesses. Next, I detail
>	my own research and conclusions, namely that while at Boeing,
>	Pynchon wrote primarily for an internal newsletter--none of
>	whose articles have bylines--called Bomarc Service News (first
>	mentioned by Richard Lane), and that in two and a half years of
>	work he produced some twenty-five to thirty technical articles for
>	this newsletter. I discuss these articles and the criteria for
>	attributing their authorship, and finish with a comprehensive
>	annotated list of those I attribute to Pynchon. In this way, I hope
>	to solve what has been one of the longest-running mysteries in
>	Pynchon scholarship, as well as bring to light the depth and
>	range of Pynchon's expertise on the Bomarc missile--an
>	expertise which almost certainly inspired and underlies
>	Gravity's Rainbow.
>
>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_6750/is_46-49/ai_n28819965/?tag=content;col1