<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Okay, we've come to a brief hiatus in the VL
discussion, so as Toby gathers his material for concluding his discussion I
will take the liberty of beginning to post a few items on the next section,
which spans pp. 218 - 238. I realize it's a bit earlier than scheduled,
but there's lots to address in this section.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>By the way, as we approach the two-thirds mark of
the novel (and for those of you "doing the math" it comes in around p. 250 or
so), it might be helpful to look back and consider what we've indeed determined
about particular characters and situations thus far, what themes seem to be
supported by the text, and what is our assessment of the book's literary merit
at this point.</FONT></DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>
<DIV><BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>What have we established so far regarding
Pynchon's satirical intent in VL? How do we determine the stronger
position?<BR><BR>Where do we stand in terms of P's politics at this point in the
novel? We seem to argue Right and Left again and again, but which "side" seems
to have the strongest textual support at this point?<BR><BR>How does this novel
measure-up stylistically to P's previous works? Does it demonstrate
maturity? control? lack thereof?<BR><BR>Other
ideas?<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Tim S.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>