COLGR49--specificity of place

[Paul Mackin]

Not to put a  very fine point on it but the information that Mucho "worked
further along the Peninsula" (p.12) is a bit problematic.  Without more
information we assume the couple lives on the San Francisco Peninsula. Logically
therefore  Mucho works closer to San Francisco than the couple lives. On the
other hand "further along the Peninsula" without specifying"up" or "down" might
well suggest,  because of the greater importance of the major city (at least back
then before Silicon Valley became dominant),  that the radio station was more in
the direction of San Jose and Sunnyvale. My residence in the area was very long
ago but I don't remember people ever saying "further along" to designate
direction there. More likely they would say up the Peninsula or down the
Peninsula or toward the City and away from the City.  Not that it matters  which
direction Mucho drives to work but  we might be dealing here with evidence that,
unlike as in the earlier V.,  P didn't see fit to consult a travel guide  based
on careful research  but relied on his own  less than thorough  personal
knowledge of his subject matter. Can attention to this kind of detail possibly be
what P was referring to in his mysterious deprecation of the second novel? We
know of course that he relearned the importance of meticulous research before
writing GR but that that book necessarily involved subject matter about which P
could have no first hand knowledge.


Some current resident of the Bay Area may now tell me I completely off the mark.

            P.