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

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

      Richard Ryan:
      Am I alone on this list in thinking that M+D is, at
      least in some respects, a superior work to GR?

      Monte Davis:
      No.

The intro to "Slow Learner" ought to be required readin' 'round these parts:

      I mean I can't very well just 86 this guy from my life. 
      On the other hand, if through some as yet 
      undeveloped technology I were to run into him 
      today, how comfortable would I feel about lending 
      him money, or for that matter even stepping down 
      the street to have a beer and talk over old times?

I think, between Gravity's Rainbow and Vineland, Pynchon stopped 
thinking so much about what systems of control to to people, and 
started thinking about what people do to people. And in M & D,
the chararcters start acting a bit more like people and less like symbols.