the works

[Brian D. McCary]

On Thu, 25 Jan 1996 Henry_Musikar at co.xerox.com wrote:

> I find the works to be (in published order):
> 1. Young
> 2. Dark
> 3. Big
> 4. Personal

I, on the other hand, would order them as

1.  Young
2.  Inspired but Tentitive
3.  Big, Dark, *and* Personal
4.  Inevitable

  I have always felt that TRP said everything he had to say in GR.  He
appears to have been a good deal more sober when writing Vineland,  but
(IMHO) he didn't really break any new ground.  I tend to see GR as a
literary equivalent to Maxwell's Equations.  I love CL, but I suspect
that if GR had never been written, CL would have about the same readership
as, say, _The Floating Opera_.  After all, _Been Down So Long...._ is
about as good, (though much less experimental) and I havn't seen it 
anywhere but in the used bookstores for a long time.  

Brian McCary