Is M&D as good as GR???

[David L. Pelovitz, Ph.D.]

On Fri, 12 Sep 1997 andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk wrote:

> I think it's a stupid, pointless and irrelevant question. I'll note
> that my (partial) reading of the published literature suggests that in
> the early years academic criticism of GR was seriously sidetracked by
> comparisons to V and TCOL49, attempts to find what people had already
> seen and understood in the earlier novels. Much as I can see
> connections between M&D and GR I also see big differences and these
> suggest that comparison at such an early stage in the game is worse
> than odious. I'll also note that it took me a long time to understand
> what was good about GR and why it was so good and that such
> understanding came after much reading and rereading. I did not expect
> that M&D would be consumed at one sitting and current evidence
> indicates that there are many things yet to be understood and enjoyed.

My view of the early criticism of GR is that a lot of people recognized
it was important, bu thtey really didn't know what to make of it 
entirely.  Comparing it to earlier works and tracking down obscure
references seemed a good way to start.  At this point, certain
themes are associated with Pynchon (it seems like any book with
the word "paranoia" in it will be called "Pynchonesque" by some
critic) - so its easy to fall into the pattern of measuring new
works by how well those themes resonate.  For me M&D (like Vineland)
includes many of Pynchon's standard themes, but his presentation
and applications of those themes is radically different.  
An obvious example would be that V., Lot 49, and GR all depend
on binary opposition to examine the rightness or wrongness of
dividing the world.  In M&D, the idea of division is examine
through the line - which is to say his attention has moved from
the polar extremes to the middle.

I would recommend M&D for different reasons (and probably to different 
people) than I recommend GR. But I don't think that recognizing
difference requires us to rank.
	
David Pelovitz, Ph.D. - pelovitd at gusun.georgetown.edu