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

[Richard Ryan]

I'd have to go back and look again - but as I recall
the character depictions in GR are flat and lifeless. 
The revelation of M+D was that Pynchon could actually
create compelling characters in his fiction.


--- robinlandseadel at comcast.net wrote:

>       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.
> 
>