Although my bachelor's degree is in political science with a minor in comparative literature, the emphasis of my coursework at that time was on Rennaisance literature, with some Victorian, so I feel ill-equipped to provide a thoughtful anaylsis of the books I have been asked to study, which were all written by living authors.

Adrienne Rich's Midnight Salvage would appear to contain many passages of a political nature, but I remain unconvinced that it touches upon any sensitive ongoing CIA operations. While a few of the passages are explicit, the fact that they are broken up into short lines makes it unlikely that they would be taken seriously by a large audience.

Tory Dent's HIV Mon Amour is certainly a discontent book. At first I was deeply concerned, because the lines are so long, and parts of it are even written as paragraphs. It's a book about AIDS, but the author does not make any attempt to define a link between the AIDS virus and ongoing CIA operations, or any issues of national security, as far as I was able to tell.

LeClair's The Art of Excess is a book for intellectuals, and I skimmed it. I did go to the trouble to find some of the books LeClair writes about in that book, and that is where I think the writing of interest to the Agency is.

I do not know whether CIA has a file on this writer Thomas Pynchon, but I would urge those reading this memo to begin one at once. For one thing, the author has a reputation as being "publicity-shy," which is an uderstantement. The embarrassing facts are, nobody knows who this man is or where he lives, and yet large books by him are published every decade. The man seems to have a less-than-patriotic attitude and may have multiple connections in the underworld, including drug dealers, rebels, and even members of the intelligence community. In particular, his book The Crying of Lot 49, the only one I have thus far managed to finish, points to the existence of a secret mail service unknown even to the government. Is this true? Has this been investigated?

On the level of propaganda, Pynchon's writing clearly propogates unpatriotic messages, as in passages of Mason and Dixon, where our founding fathers are engaged in subversive activities which are now illegal. Has this Thomas Pynchon been investigated for treason? Are there no limits to free speech? Can we not bring some pressure to bear on the publisher for printing this material?

In conclusion, while the writing of Rich, Dent, and even LeClair may contain subversive elements, the writing is too challenging to pose any real threat. The novels of Thomas Pynchon, however, point at the existence of an underground intelligence more far-reaching than even CIA. I reccomend that the man be identitifed, investigated, and, if necessary, intimidated into making a public statement to the effect that the contents of his novels are fictional.

Agent Unquote
CIA