MDMD(7) Opening comments

[Penny Padgett]

Hi all,

Not to harp on _Vineland_ or anything, but this passage that
Andrew quoted from M&D:

>- `He must often remind himself not to search the Boy's Faces too intently
>for Rebekah's [. . .] Withal their Faces are their own, unsortably,-- and
>claim the Moment.' Love the rhythm introduced by that `unsortably,--'.
>(211.28)

certainly suggests a similar passage in _Vineland_ where Prairie
searches her own face for traces of Frenesi's:

  She stared into her reflection, at the face that had always been
  half a mystery to her, despite photos of her mother that Zoyd
  and Sasha had shown her.  It was easy to see Zoyd in her face --
  that turn of chin, slope of eyebrows -- but she'd known for a
  long time how to filter these out, as a way to find the face of
  her mother in what was left.  (p. 98)

This seems to support observations made by Brian McCrary, among others,
about the increasing importance of child and family themes in Pynchon's
post-GR work.

Penny