Editing the Jest

[RICHARD ROMEO]

NYT review if Infinite Jest ends with "somewhere in the mess, the reader 
suspects, are the outlines of  a splendid novel...you can see a godly 
creature trying to fight its way out of the marble, but ti's stuck there, 
half excavated, unable to break completely free."

Didn't someone mention a ways back that GR was cut by three hundred pages 
or so (can one imagine!-will we ever see these cuts I wonder ala 'Stephen 
Hero' and such)?  My question is (since some of the notables on this list 
are writers themselves) how important are the editors in the creative 
process and does the amount of cutting increase/decrease with the fame of 
the author?  Was Pynchon smart to cut these pages (or advised to)  Were 
the publishers so hep on getting this monster from Wallace that they 
rushed it (all speculating on my part).  Itchin to start the damn thing 
if only I can extricate meself from Gass' Tunnel.



(after the noble

comes the joker,

after the devil

comes the rapture)



Rich

NYC