more real people

[TERRY CAESAR]

      I'm not sure if anybody really cares but me, yet just to answer my own
question of a couple days ago (and Andrew's witty suggestion to the contrary
notwithstanding): the novel in which Norman Mailer is killed is Alan Lelchuk's
American Mischief (1973). Thanks to John Krafft. I don't plan to read the book.
It might be interesting to research what happened to the Mailer suit against
Lelchuk--the real Norman Mailer, that is.

       The interesting thing about this episode is that it exhibits a further
stage to Andrew's point about how Gaddis "conflates" our real world of reading
with the fictional world of his novel when he represents himself as Willie. 
Mailer acted to pull the conflation apart once more--and it seems to me any
conflation between the real and the fictional (or virtual) is always susceptable
to such an action. The connection between the two realms is elusive, unstable,
troublesome and troubling.

       Another problem with Gaddis/Willie: how different with the character of
Philip Roth in Philip Roth, or Nabokov's sly self-representations in a number
of his books, or even John Barth's cute self-portrait in Chimera? I don't think
is each of these cases it can be argued that our recognition of authorial real-
ty only comes about on the basis of the book we are actually reading. How it
comes about is a complicated matter, probably in each case, which might well be
another way of saying that the outside of reading (our knowledge of an author,
his or her picture on a book jacket, etc) can't be separated from the inside
(the specifics of the narrative). Of course one might want to claim that Gaddis
is worth all these writers. But this is another matter.

        A final thought: I'm still not sure I understand why one one writer
(Gaddis or anybody else) is moved to include a self-representation within a
narrative. I mean, why in the first place, and no matter than it can be done,
done well, and done to subtle effect (as is certainly the case with Gaddis). 
Worse, now I'm not even sure whether this question is related to the one of
why real people get included in narratives, or whether it's a separate ques-
tion. 

       At least it's a sunny day, and I have only to look out my window rather
than pick up a requisite novel. Chances of seeing Ted Williams or Al Pacino or
William Gaddis remain slim, though, which might be a good reason not to stare
out the window too long.

                          Elusively,
                             Terry