[M&D] possible spoilers - 1st chapter

[Greg Montalbano]

Chris Sweet comments:
>Someone on the list mentioned how M&D might be similar to
>The Sot-weed Factor. One of the things that has struck me
>after finishing the first chapter is the twins, Pliny &
>Pitt. While SWF's Eben and Anne Cooke were not twins they
>might as well have been and twins permeate Barth's other
>fiction. Any thoughts?

Let me be the first nitpicker to point out that Eben & Anna WERE, most
definitely, twins;  one of the more directly self-relflexive passages early
in the book states that Nature had seen fit to alter his features subltly
from hers to a more gargoylish mien, "just as a clever author, through
subtle alterations, can make a ridiculous parody of a beautiful style."

(Was reading SOT-WEED FACTOR for the first time back when I was reading V
for the first time;  have re-read them equally since.  Ah, my children,
those were the days....)