Interlude: If James Wood Supposes...

[Michael Bailey]

> > I've said it before:  GR
> >was the high point.
> >
> >David Morris

> No argument here.
>
> Laura
>

I've got similar dogmas on various items - e.g.

Pink Floyd after Ummagumma - meh...
Rod Stewart never shoulda left the Small Faces
(actually, ditto for many solo careers)
Dylan peaked at Blond on Blond (still great after, just never _as_ great)
Fleetwood Mac at Bare Trees
Dos Passos as a reactionary leaves me more than cold
Lucy Carmichael doesn't hold a candle to Lucy Ricardo
1st season of The Wire still the best (of the 3 I've seen so far)
Barefoot in the Park incomparably better than (what I gather about) Spamalot
1st Matrix (what, there were more Matrix movies? I was trying to forget)
Spicoli still the most engaging Sean Penn role
Bush's 1st term unmatched in evil accomplishments by the 2nd
(hope that stays true...)
Chet Kincaid more fun than Cliff Huxtable

on the flip side,
William Frawley as Bub O'Casey was cooler than as Fred Mertz
Faust _much_ better than Werther
Goldie Hawn in The Banger Sisters vs in Bird on a Wire - much better!
 Abbey Road better than Sgt Pepper
Shakespeare in Love beats Rosencranz and Guildenstern
2nd Newhart sitcom was even better than the 1st! (RIP Suzanne Pleshette)
Lou Grant even better in Lou Grant than in MTM Show
...etc etc,
and that's the list I've got AtD (& M&D and Vineland) in

can't argue with anyone who finds GR great -
but for me the later books fill reading needs that
(heresy?) GR didn't meet, even at the time.

Have less of a certain jolting quality that some miss but not me...
Are as insanely referential, with just a tad more sweetness,
a smidgen more character study.
Aren't overtly incompatible with the notion that they seem to move
toward a more optimistic worldview...