Stats

[Greg Montalbano]

On Sun, 19 May 1996 13:05:11 -0700 (PDT) you said:
>On Sun, 19 May 1996, Paul DiFilippo wrote:
>
>> Just got to thinking about  TRP's lifetime stats in the wordage
>> dept, as if spread out over his whole career.  Suppose we
>> allocate a generous (?) 200K words to V, 50K to COL49, and
>> 500K to GR.  Then toss in another 50K to SLOW LEARNER.  That makes
>> a generous 800K over a 33-year career, or roughly 25K per year.
>
>    Is _Vineland_ not considered his work?  I have been wondering
>    why it is I don't feel like reading it.  What is it about this
>    book?  It seems to ooze invisibility and triviality.  Someone
>    please tell me this isn't so and that I should waste no time
>    reading.  (After I finish the last 100 pages of GR,  and then
>    read it through again,  that is.)
>
>    veg
>
>
>
I've never been quite certain WHY, but I have noticed in the postings to this
list a certain attitude of contempt or dismissal towards VINELAND.
I enjoyed the book on several levels, through several readings (although not
as many as V or GR);  this leads to musings as to possible reasons for the
general lack of enthusiasm on the part of the listees:
-- VINELAND is a more "concrete" book than the others;  there are fewer levels,
less mysticism & not as many spaces to be filled in by the reader.  Judging
by the expressed preferences of the folks on this list, that could be taken
as a negative quality.
--The subject matter & settings seem more "trivial" than V or GR for a couple
of reasons:  the familiarity in time & space for most of us makes the book seem
less "exotic" than the WWII backdrop, the Sudwest, the Khirgiz Light;  and
if the media have taught us anything in the last 20 years, it is to sneer at
the 60's and anything to do with them.

I believe that, while valid, these judgements can cause people to miss out
on a damn good book.  I feel that, in VINELAND, TRP did for California in
the 60's what he did for WWII Europe in GR, or what he did for postwar
New York in V;  and I think he did it very well.  There's also a level of
humor in VINELAND that exceeds his other books;  and if you look REALLY
close, there's a truly paranoid structure lurking behind much of the action.

Just a couple of random thoughts;  I'm not really prepared today to defend
or analyze the book in any depth.

________________________________________
"If we can't be free, we can at least be cheap."   -- Frank Zappa