plots, victims and heroes

[Bonnie Surfus ENG]

On Wed, 21 Feb 1996, Greg Montalbano wrote:

> On Tue, 20 Feb 96 23:30:37 CST you said:
> >> characters in Barth's The End of the Road are well realized, I've always
> >> had the feeling that Barth didn't really like anybody in the book.  (Of
> >> course it's been 25 years since I read it, so I might be talking through my
> >> hat).
> >>
> >
> >nope, your hat's firmly atop your head.  i just read _the end of the
> >road_ a couple of months ago.  barth hates them all, but i don't think he
> >hates little jake horner quite as much as he does joe and rennie morgan,
> >or, especially, peggy rankin.
> >
> >--
> >brad daly              	                       bwdaly at panther.bsc.edu
> >Interviewer:                                      "Why do you write?"
> >Flannery O'Connor:                          "Because I'm good at it."
> I wouldn't say he necessarily "hates" his characters.  Remember that END OF
> THE ROAD was written at a time when he was producing books in conceptual pairs:
> END OF THE ROAD was the negative treatment of the same basic story that was
> handled in a much lighter way in THE FLOATING OPERA.
> --- not that this relates to anything about TRP;  just thought I'd mention it.
> 
Actually, this does relate to PYnchon;  in THE END OF THE ROAD, there is 
reference to a "Remobilization Farm," a moving psychiatrists practice, 
(moving because of its questionable practices--dodging lawsuits.)  It is 
located in VINELAND Co.