First Couple-Three Pages: 6/11 - ATDTDA (11): 296 - 326 --The Deep Read:

[David Morris]

I think your critique of the three brother's characters is right-on
(thanks for putting it into words).  They are all wanderers and all
have "transformative" experiences.  Reef's is his affair with Cyprian
& Yashmeen (not his occasional hauntings), and I would say it is the
most significant one in terms of character development.  But the three
brothers are all just affable adventurous good-guys with a few small
differences in their interests/hobbies.  Their main function is as
vehicles for world-wide adventures (can you say Chums?) and as a
contrast to their bad sister.

BTW, I just found this bit at he Chumps of Choice site:
pp.661-693
Later, alone together at dinner, Kit tells Yashmeen of the Traverse
brothers, for purposes of comparison. Reef: "Reckless." Frank:
"Reasonable." Kit: "Just the baby."

As I typed "Chums?" above, it occurred to me that maybe each of the
Chums (5 plus dog) has a counterpart on the earth.  Darby, the "baby,"
would correspond with Kit.  Linsay, 2nd officer, would correspond with
Frank.  Randolf, #1 officer, would correspond with Reef.  Latecomer to
the ship, Chick, might be Merle.  And Pugnax might be Lew?  I have no
idea what the goal of such a mapping might be.  And Lake?  She's too
jaded to be a part of this airship.

And its ironic that people are saying this novel shows a development
of Pynchon's interest in people rather than systems (as in GR) when so
many of the characters are indistinguishable from one another.

David Morris

On 6/13/07, kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>
> 1.  A number of posters have called both this and the last section a little flat. Both sections focus mostly on Frank.  Frank IS a flat character, as are his brothers Reef and Kit.  The three are differentiated not by any separate personalities, but by what happens to them.  Reef and Kit end up in Europe, Frank in Mexico.  Kit has his mystical moment in Tunguska, Frank in the Mexican jungle, Reef has his occasional hauntings, but none of these experiences is essential to any of the characters.  These could easily have been reduced from three to two or even one character -- the only limitation being how much time they could spend in three continents in the given time period.  Where Slothrop, a basically affable guy is infected with dread and paranoia, ultimately leading to his disintegration, these three are merely affable.  Their mystical visions don't change them much.
>
> The great disappointment for me in ATD is, not only do we not get a Slothrop-Oedipa-Profane-Stencil-Mason-Dixon (even) Zoyd-Frenesi protagonist, many of the characters we do get (good-guys Lew-Merle-Reef-Frank-Kit) are virtually indistinguishable.  Slothrop, Enzian and Pirate may not have been well-rounded characters, but they were very different from each other.
>
> There's a lot that's intriguing in ATD: the themes of light and chaos as defining themes of the 20th Century, for example.  But the characters are a weakness here moreso than in any of his other books.
>