Decline

[Andrew Clarke Walser]

	I agree with Steelhead that VINELAND represents a decline for
Pynchon, although to me the failure seems more one of labor -- as if TRP
had abandoned the manuscript a draft or two early -- than one of vision. 
Of course, Dante did not write a COMMEDIA every time out, and Milton had
his COMUS and his PARADISE REGAINED: we must not expect an artist, however
great, to dash off masterpieces as if they were memoranda. 

					Andrew Walser
					University of Illinois-Chicago