Have finished, but will never be done with M&D (was M&D yea/boo)

[Gary L. Thompson]

On Fri, 18 Jul 1997, Eric Alan Weinstein wrote (responding to MantaRay 
and Doug M.):

> I think M&D is  great.  I don't see any point in comparing it to
> Gravity's Rainbow because they are so very different. I enjoy Pynchon's 
> embarrassment of riches and I'm glad I don't have to choose.
>  

Second that. I wasn't carried away by _M&D_ as I was by _GR_, but then 
I'm 25 years older (as is Pynchon). Looking back over his novels, I don't 
see any klunkers--with Faulkner, you do have _Absalom, Absalom!_ and 
_Light in August_ and _The Sound and the Fury_, but then you have _A 
Fable_ which he worked 17 years on, and _The Town_ with its dreary Gavin 
Stevens, and a few others that just didn't go. Melville only did 
_Moby-Dick_ once, along with some brilliant stuff in _The Piazza 
Tales_--but he committed _Mardi_ and _Pierre_. If you like Poe, try 
reading _Eureka_ some time. Then there's William Shakespeare, the author 
of _King John_ along with some better known plays.

The devaluing of _Vineland_ here has been by contrast with the other 
works--pretty much any other contemporary US writer would be proud to 
claim it, I should think.

Gary Thompson