John Gardner quote

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

"The nation's in the hands of child molesters" - John Gardner, just tossed in as an aside in _The King's Indian_

(sort of a Pynch connection, as he was among the excori-ees in Gardner's "On Moral Fiction")

I think before the end of his (Gardner's) life, he was beginning to come around on Pynchon, though.  

Gardner "lived fast, loved hard, died young," I visited the museum exhibit dedicated to him in Batavia and saw his leather jacket.  (his sister Sandy, who also died too young, was a friend of mine) 

I think he made Thomas Wolfe's mistake of writing recognizable characters from his hometown into a novel...