AtDtDA23: Tatzelwurm

[Monte Davis]

Dave recalls:

> Dixon describes his fear of open spaces ("Rum affliction for a Surveyor,"
comments Mason)...

This made me laugh out loud, just as it did ten years ago. P. often does
this comic contrast of inflation and deflation -- one character on the edge
of terror (or enlightenment), expressing the grandest cosmic fear (or hope)
of wrapping It All into something nameable...  the other saying in various
ways "are you sure it's not just something you ate? Is this going to make
sense in the morning?" 

But only in M&D does he develop the contrasts into a sustained counterpoint
of character, Charles & Jeremiah taking turns being matter-of-fact to the
other's flights. It gets richer and funner as their years (and ours) go by.