This isn't exactly on topic, but it does provide some historical context for Underworld. I was researching various advertisements for my paper, and came across this image:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Miss_Atomic_Bomb_1957.jpg
The photograph of "Miss Atomic Bomb" features a Las Vegas showgirl wearing a dress shaped like a mushroom cloud. The image was used to encourage people to visit the Nevada nuclear testing site, which was a tourist attraction at the time. According to an article I read on post-gazette.com, people actually planned happy hours around nuclear blasts-- they'd sit poolside and enjoy the flashes.
This ties right in with the sexualization of weaponry theme that we saw in both Gravity's Rainbow and Underword. I hadn't realized that nuclear testing sites were actually tourist attractions, or that weaponry really was sexualized to an extent, at least in this photograph. It's striking how these themes really do hit so close to home.
Hmm, when I read this another image strikes me. As you describe Miss Atomic Bomb I can't help but think of Long Tall Sally. They have similarities. She was decorating a war plan that bombed Vietnam, right? I find it interesting that the ideas of innocence and femininity are used to advertise something to obviously opposite. What stimulating propoganda!
Do you know how much time I spent on wikipedia just sucked in by the wealth of information about this time period that I thought I knew about? I probably read as much on that site as I did of the book, and I definitely finished all 827 pages of the book. If you haven't looked up what they have to say about Soviet bomb testing and such, check it out. It's fascinating how much we aren't taught in middle school.