HBO serials (was: Re: Mini-penis he thought was his own)

[Monte Davis]

Rich writes:
 
> the wire is dickensian in its multi-layered scope and truly a gem 
 
I'm just back from the Maine woods, where as it happened I re-read Little
Dorrit and Dombey and Son -- and yes, especially the former's parallel -
interlocking - mutually reflecting plotlines had me thinking a lot about
both AtD and The Wire..
 
With Pynchon'c charcaterization in mind... for those who know Dombey, check
out Ch. 29 ("The Opening of the Eyes of Mrs. Chick") in which Louisa turns
on her friend Lucretia Tox for her presumption in having dreamed she might
marry Dombey. It affected me much more strongly this time around than it did
a few decades back. Almost all dialogue, very little psychological
"interiority," but searing revelation. Dickens is sometimes taxed for
caricature, even gargoyle-ism, as if his carving were crude -- but what I
see these days is rather a strong, low-angle, high-contrast moral light on
carving that is in fact exquisitely fine. 
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