ST ch 37 Business Plot

[rich]

this tidbit came along recently about Lot49. if u haven't seen

McGrath touches on career management when she explains that Thomas Pynchon
“threw [*The Crying of Lot 49*] together on the advice of his agent,
Candida Donadio, to fulfill his contract with Lippincott and follow his
editor to Viking.

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/middlemen-literary-agents-american-publishing-industry-laura-mcgrath/

On Mon, May 11, 2026 at 2:39 PM Robin Landseadel via Pynchon-l <
pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:

> Which is why I haven't bought into the notion that the JFK assassination
> is the lynchpin of CoL 49. I can see the CIA, I can see Operation
> Paperclip, I can see MKULTRA. Those are subjects the author was researching
> for the Big Book, the one where he's gonna go to the toppermost of the
> poppermost, or at least the literary equivalent of same. I can see all of
> those in Gravity's Rainbow, but in much more depth.
>
> I also see the Peter Pinguin society which I take is something of a parody
> of the John Birch Society. I also take that the Nefastis machine is most
> likely pointing to Scientology. The Courier's Tragedy takes a stab at the
> Jacobean revenge play. There's lots of targets the author takes aim at,
> he's known as a satirist, right? It's 1964, it's California, plenty to
> satirize.
>
> You want a book about the JFK assassination? try Don DeLillo's Libra.
>
> On 05/11/2026 8:57 AM PDT Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> He surely knew the conspiracy theories of JFK’s death (1 which is why he
> picked none and 2)  which is why he also made fun —satiric fun—in all his
> books of conspiracy theories.
>
> On Mon, May 11, 2026 at 11:43 AM Corbeau Castrum via Pynchon-l <
> pynchon-l at waste.org mailto:pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
>
> How dangerous would it have been for Pynchon to suggest or imply the CIA
> had a hand (that of the conductor) in JFK's assassination? Was it not
> widely suspected and discussed? Or was it his prominence as the next big
> thing in American writing that put him in (perceived) danger? How would he
> have known if it was not common knowledge?
>
> I think the scene in GR when Slothrop discovers FDR is dead works pretty
> well as a stand-in for Kennedy too.
>
>
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>