Mucho in Vineland

[j minnich]

        Has the brief reappearance of Mucho Maas in _Vineland_ ever bothered
anyone besides me?  I've been at a loss myself to find any literary
justification for his reappearance there.  This gratuitous trotting-out or
re-cycling of old Mucho struck me (along with all the "cool cars") as
somehow typical of V-land's weakness.  Mucho's contribution to the story
seemed flimsy, to say the least.  Now I admit that these musings of mine are
not unconnected with the recent speculation over a "Thom Pynchon" at KEWB
(which I've contributed to, but did not start).  If there's a bit of
concealed autobiography in Mucho's repeat appearance in V-land, then maybe
that helps justify his presence there.    -j minnich
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The poet is dead.
Nor will ever again hear the sea lions 
Grunt in the kelp at Point Lobos.
Nor look to the south when the grunion 
Run the Pacific, and the plunging
Shearwaters, insatiable, 
Stun themselves in the sea.  
   -W. Everson