[M&D] possible spoilers - 1st chapter

[Alan Westrope]

On Tue, 29 Apr 1997, Greg Montalbano wrote:

>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?      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
   ^^^^^^^                     [emphasis mine -- AW]

>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."

Correct.  BTW, Barth has a twin sister, whom he mentions in "Some Reasons
Why I Tell the Stories I Tell The Way I Tell Them Rather Than Some Other
Sort of Stories Some Other Way" (reprinted in _The Friday Book_).

-- 
Alan Westrope     PGP public key:  http://www.crl.com/~awestrop
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