Re: V2 to Bomarc: Reading Gravity’s Rainbow in Context

[rich]

which made the fail safe redundancy of the nuclear triad even more
pointless--might as well have those bombers and subs, too to ensure..not
sure what

rich

On Sun, Feb 21, 2016 at 2:33 PM, Monte Davis <montedavis49 at gmail.com> wrote:

> One thing Comyn doesn't make explicit (a graphic timeline might have
> helped) is that the Bomarc (and the early Nike rockets) were purely
> *anti-aircraft* missiles.They were designed for the Soviet attacks we had
> envisioned from the late 1940s through the late 1950s, and stood no chance
> against much faster ICBMs (with much less warning). By the time Pynchon was
> working at Boeing (1960-62), it was well understood in defense and
> contractor circles that both sides in the Cold War were shifting from
> bombers to ICBMs as fast as they could. By the time GR was completed,
> despite a flurry of ABM (anti-ballistic missile) talk under Nixon, there
> was little prospect of effective defense (missile or otherwise) against
> ICBMs. Ditto during Reagan's SDI in the 1980s; ditto today against any
> attacker more capable than North Korea.
>
> So the specific technological system Pynchon was closest to was becoming
> futile before his eyes. The scope of destruction increased enormously --
> but by 1973, every city dweller in the industrialized world was in a
> position no less defenseless than Londoners in GR. I think that
> helplessness should find a place in any reading that leans heavily on
> totalizing notions of control.
>
> On Sun, Feb 21, 2016 at 5:03 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> https://www.pynchon.net/articles/10.7766/orbit.v2.2.62/#bibd2e888
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>
>
>
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