IVIV "heart" in Pynchon's novels

[Robin Landseadel]

On Aug 26, 2009, at 7:59 AM, Doug Millison wrote:

> Does VL show more "heart" that M&D, ATD, or IV?  It's a fuzzy enough  
> question to keep p-listers busy well into the next century and I for  
> one am thrilled at that prospect. Please count me among readers who  
> find in all of Pynchon's novels a deep understanding of and  
> compassion for the human condition, in the way he shapes his novels  
> to demonstrate the sometimes inhuman forces that force humans into  
> compromises they might not otherwise freely choose, and in the way  
> he shapes his characters to reveal ways we might resemble or  
> resonate with them, thereby helping us poor preterite readers to see  
> ourselves in a different light.  I think he sees right into the  
> heart of the tragedy, comedy, banality, and pain of life in this  
> broken and polluted world, and he does a wonderful job of  
> communicating what he sees in ways that have fascinated me since 1973.

Everybody's milage varies. The way Doc gets lost in the fog at the  
ending of the tale, wishing to be "anywhere but here" strikes me as a  
particularly emotional sequence, as does the way he mourns his love  
for Shasta and by extension mourns the loss of the entire hippie dream.