Poopoo

[Joseph Tracy]

You are definitely right on Popov.  Mistake admitted. The article I read was guessing at Pynchon’s source and that source did not list Popov,  but others, like yourself, showed he is named in the records. I obviously also see Fallopian as unreliable with racist tendencies. I just listened to an episode of Daniele Bolelli’s History on Fire about his grandparents part in resistance to Mussolini. One of the interesting things about Benito was his willingness to change stories/beliefs  in pursuit of more power. A supreme narcissist. The violence and internal warfare scarred an entire generation.  

> On Jun 1, 2024, at 10:30 AM, J K Van Nort via Pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
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> Joseph wrote:
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>  ! Nicholas 2 !( inaccurate history Nick 2 didn’t become czar until 1896*)sends Russian flee to SF Bay Area  to “keep Britain and France from (among other things) intervening on the side of the Confederacy.    What were the other things and are they relevant to story? 4 corvettes 2 clippers under rear ad. Popov (probably fictional)
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> Did TRP get this wrong himself or is he putting wildly inaccurate history in the mouth of Fallopian and the Pinguid society , oddly combined with a real but  nitpicky and meaningless possible incident ( Confederate vs Russian ships) of recorded history, and showing that neither the Birch-like PP society nor the educated anti communist corporate lawyer Metzger,  nor the Cornell educated stickler for accuracy, Oedipa, know enough about Russian history to catch this glaring mistake? How many Americans would? Alexander II made the declaration to free the Serfs and was emperor during US civil war and my sense is that Pynchon did know this!  
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> I've been doing research to add to the Pynchon Wiki on CoL49, and I actually found the Admiral Popov who commanded a squadron that wintered in San Francisco, declared he would defend the city if attacked, and even helped put out a fire on San Francisco wharf. Then catching up with the listserve after the down period, I see Michael found an excellent source with even more details. If you don’t mind Michael, I’ll add that source in the Pynchon wiki.
> TRP's research shouldn't be questioned. He's making Fallopian an unreliable character, and much like rabid conspiracy theorists, MF (or Fat Dick) is willing to make the facts fit his conception. Even the two ships named by Fallopian actually belonged to Popov's squadron. The communication blurring is deliberate. The more MF is discussed the more his name & PP become a whole new double entendre.
> In solidarity,
> James
> 
> Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
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