Dying public

[jporter]

M*D, @aol...

>As to being back, I haven't really gone anywhere, it's just that GRGR leaves
>me weeping with boredom.  (And re your being overjoyed, well I'm ...
>flattered.)

Flattered by Mackin? You're a cheap date, M...   : )

>The Counterlife is marvelous.  And there are far more ideas, more
>intellectual rigor, and more sheer narrative brilliance in Operation Shylock
>than in the overlong, overrated, and overbloated M&D.

I couldn't agree with you more, re: M&D, except that it is much better than
the even longer, overrated and overbloated GR. Both failures in their own
ways, of course, but still, absolute masterpieces, and both, well beyond
Roth's reach. Not because Roth is less brilliant or less talented- that is
certainly not the case- but because of their different temperaments. In
that sense, you have mixed apples and oranges, and you are being
unnecessarily defensive of Roth's work. It stands on its own and doesn't
require such a defense-  and certainly not at Pynchon's expense.

Poignantly again, however, you seem to have difficulty entering into the
discussion without, as Rich noted, your characteristic "prance and preen."
But then, you prance and preen for us, don't you M*D.... and, I guess, we
should be flattered, afterall.

Except that this time your criticisms of M&D seem to be maligning the very
witticism you demonstrated by your choice of screen name, back then, when
the book first came out, and you joined the fun- a breath of fresh air.
Boredom seems to have turned MalignD into Malvolia. What you will, Mal, but
isn't that chip getting a little heavy? It does force you to maintain
character, of course, and from straying beyond the severe constraints of
the presence you've crafted. Perhaps it keeps you, god forbid, from looking
foolish.

You might reconsider Bellow, young and old, on the effects of boredom, and,
on the fear of being seen as foolish- even by the likes of us.

For the rain it raineth every day...  on fools and kings alike.

jody