A puzzler from BusinessWeek

[Brian D. McCary]

> From owner-pynchon-l at sfu.ca Tue Jan 23 12:12 CST 1996
> Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 09:14:17 -0800
> From: Penny Padgett <padgett at intellicorp.com>
> To: pynchon-l at sfu.ca
> Subject: A puzzler from BusinessWeek
> 

>   Inadvertently, perhaps, both books describe an America worthy of
>   Thomas Pynchon.  As in that author's _Gravity's Rainbow_, Mitnick
>   and Shimomura live in a world that's chock-full of brand names,
>   rife with technology, flooded with electronic signals, and fraught
>   with paranoia.
> 
> Huh?  You reckon reviewer John W. Verity has confused GR with, say,
> _Snow Crash_ or that repellent novel about the mass murderer with
> the penchant for designer menswear?  Paranoia, sure, but *brand names*?

Or, perhaps, Vineland.  I don't remember much in the way of brand names
in it, but the rest of it fits.