Mutations?

[Mr Craig Clark]

> Other than their encyclopedic and epic nature do the literary types on
> this list see any other natural progression from "Moby Dick" to "Ulysses"
> to "The Recognitions" to "Gravity's Rainbow" to "Infinite Jest"?  Yeah,
> Ulysses and Gravity's Rainbow seem to almost be cut from the same cloth in
> terms of style and technique, but intuitively one seems to mutate from the
> proceeding one.  Does the natural evolution of the great novel mutate from
> Moby Dick to Infinite Jest, the last begin unable to exist without what
> came before?

Probably not an answer to your question, but what do foax on this 
list think of  Gene Wolfe's _Book of the New Sun_, an attempt to 
write a SF encyclopedic novel?
Craig Clark

"Living inside the system is like driving across
the countryside in a bus driven by a maniac bent
on suicide."
   - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"