Well I just reread Vineland and the news is still bad...

[David Morris]

On 6/13/07, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think there is a reason for that 17 yr gap.  the first three novels are so much about systems, their hold on people, means of escaping at attempts, discovery, horror, resignation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/11/AR2007061101859.html

We have become political hypochondriacs. We seem eager to declare that
"the system" has come down with some dread disease, to proclaim that
an ideological "center" blessed by the heavens no longer exists, and
woe unto us. An imperfect immigration bill is pulled from the Senate
floor, and you'd think the Capitol dome had caved in.

It's all nonsense, but it is not harmless nonsense. The tendency to
blame the system is a convenient way of leaving no one accountable.
Those who offer this argument can sound sage without having to grapple
with the specifics of any piece of legislation. There is the unspoken
assumption that wisdom always lies in the political middle, no matter
how unsavory the recipe served up by a given group of self-proclaimed
centrists might be.