The Secret Integration

[Adam Lou Stephanides]

I finally got around to reading "The Secret Integration," and I'm
glad I did.  An excellent story, with ties to GR that
go beyond its setting in Slothrop's home town and inclusion of
Tyrone's relatives as characters (or the mention of King Yrjo
(without the umlaut)).  If "The Secret Integration" lacks the
conspiratorial focus which we think of as characteristically
Pynchonesque, the "gang" of pranksters is surely a prototype
of the Counterforce; and the failure of their schemes bolsters
the reading of GR which sees the Counterforce as ultimately
ineffectual.  If _Vineland_, as some here have suggested, is
about Us as opposed to GR's focus on Them, it would be interesting
to compare how "The Secret Integration" and _Vineland_ explain
Our failure (I don't remember _Vineland_ well enough to compare
them myself).

--Adam