Political Philately

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

"The Brussels Exhibition Issue of 1958 included in its aerial view of th 
US pavilion at Brussels, and set slightly off from the other tiny 
fairgoers, the unmistakable silhouette of a horse and a rider."

(The Crying of Lot 49, chapter 6)

Unmistakable?
Actually I have no idea where to find this "silhouette" ...

http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Brussels_stamp.jpg

It's my guess that Pynchon did not include this stamp because one could 
really, "unmistakable" or not, find there a trace of Trystero or some 
other (perhaps non-fictional) alternative system of communication. 
That's just how the actual theme, the US pavilion from 1958, is 
integrated in the text.

Here's a description of the US pavilion in Brussels:

 > The US pavilion was quite spacious and included a fashion show with 
models walking down a large spiral staircase, an electronic computer 
that demonstrated a knowledge of history, and a color television studio 
behind glass. <   (Wikipedia: Expo 58)

Being described as "quite spacious," the US pavilion must have been one 
of those typical Pynchon buildings which appear to be much bigger once 
you're in.  And while models walking down spiral staircases are a 
timeless classic, the other two features are telling: "A color 
television studio behind glass" recalls to the reader "the greenish dead 
eye of the TV tube" by which Oedipa is "stared at" on the novel's first 
page. And "an electronic computer that demonstrated a knowledge of 
history" embodies this dream, to replace historical struggle and the 
human freedom therein by technological control, on a higher and more 
dangerous level. A dark dream Pynchon writes against in all of his 
books. So there should be that silhouette ...


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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l