IVIV "heart" in Pynchon's novels

[John Carvill]

> Dave Monroe:
>
>> Does VL show more "heart" that M&D, ATD, or IV?
>
> I may or may not understand what that means, but I see no reason why
> it should be of particular importance.  Seems to me almost beside the
> point, and certainly not the litmus test by which one should respond
> to the novel(s) ...
>

Shit, no, it shouldn't 'matter' at all. Unless you're coming at the
book from a hysterically realist angle, demanding character, dammit,
and growth, I say, and so forth.

But although there is nowhere near as little heart in GR as some
people seem to think, I'd say there was a qualitative as well as
quantitative shift by the time of Vineland, maybe you could call it  a
mellower feeling, I dunno. Then obviously there was plenty of heart in
M&D, the ending alone brings a tear to the eye, and ATD was full of
emotion. Doc sure has a heart, there's a lot of heart-felt nostalgia
in IV, etc etc.

This sort of thing is very difficult to quantify, but if I had to give
a yes/no answer to the question, 'Does VL show more "heart" that M&D,
ATD, or IV?', then I'd say a very definite 'No', because there was
plenty of heart in those previous books.