Editing the Jest

Chris Sweet csweet at gte.net
Thu Feb 15 01:13:04 CST 1996


RICHARD ROMEO wrote:
> 
> 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


Speaking of editing....in Time magazine Wallace states he found
710,000 typos in the proofs of Infinite Jest...

chris

-- 
Christopher Sweet                    Csweet at gte.net
http://FTPhome1.gte.net/csweet/index.htm                            
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