A simple Pynchon:Gaddis anal-o[r]gy

[jesper andersen]

As much as we might all hate to admit it, M&D is not by any means a work of
genius.  It is rather a confused and overworked struggle to beat out
Gravity's Rainbow as the novel to end all novels.  I had tremendous hopes
for Mason & DIxon and went out and bought it the first day, but the book
fails to live up my own expectations and those set by the reviewers who
hailed it as being a work of genius.  It simply isn't write to attack Keith
for pointed what mnay scholars understand to be a problem among encyclpedic
authors: when you've once attempted to write the be all and end all of
novels, what do you have left to say.  For other examples, perhaps more
clear than Gaddis, see both Powers and Joyce.
     Jesper Andersen
     Haverford College
     janderse at haverford.edu

     (610) 896-8470