Grasping for V. Group Read: Every night is Christmas Eve on old East Main

[Mark Kohut]

"There is no reading, only rereading"---Nabokov

First: some of Host's overall impressions: this reading, as happens, I felt the humor more...and many poignant notes in the opening chapter....first reads especially, anticipating a puzzle of a book, I read too earnestly trying to get the puzzle and din't feel it as aright as I could. Others too? 

Christmas Eve, 1955. V.'s simple beginning sentence is not exactly up there with GR ----or M &D's wonderful snowball
opening but the whole paragraph touches a lot of notes.  TRP seems to love Christmas, someone here has said. 

But first question re a possible Pynchon hidden layer---or just a too-Kute Koincidence? When I googled Christmas Eve 1955 to see what day of the week it was, I learned this:  
 
from the pynchon wiki
9/1 - Christmas Eve 1955
The first time that the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) received a call concerning Santa's whereabouts. [1] 
So, Santa, not a rocket, came laughing across the sky that eve.....in a country's fantasy/myth creation. It was the 'peaceful' fifties. 

Then learned this: 
Pynchon worked on aspects of NORAD [later acronym of CONAD] when he was at Boeing. [2] 
 
Who thinks TRP KNEW of the first Santa tracking when he started V. here...and meant it.......?
 
And, as the serious lit crtics say: Against the sky signals a cosmic intention and ambition for our seaman-writer.