VL-IV role reversal in Vineland in a general sort of way

[Tore Rye Andersen]

Laura:
 
> I like Vineland for what it is, but it lacks a lot of what I love about Pynchon's work [...]
> It's entertaining and well-written and has lots of great turns of phrase (softoff, for example), 
> but it never fascinates or mind-blows. 
 
I love Vineland with a passion, and I thinks it grows with each rereading, but I still have to 
agree with Laura that it lacks GR's cool settings and its almost otherworldly density of amazing
connections. Incidentally, the phrase "softoff" occurs twice in GR: both Slothrop and Marvy
get softoffs at some point in the novel (pages 292 and 606, respectively).
 
I often think of Vineland as a long, loose, jazzy improvisation over the themes set forth by 
Pökler's story in GR (severed parental bonds, the desire for control, moral culpability, etc.).
Leni's Army of Lovers clearly has more to do with the American Sixties than with prewar Berlin, and
the relation between Pökler and Weissmann has many similarities with the relation between Frenesi
and Brock. 
 
/Tore
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