Pynchon article

[Jules Siegel]

Dear Friends,

It's raining e-mail! I have just spent pretty much of a whole afternoon
trying to answer all this great mail. It turns out to be too big a task
to send the article out one by one, so I am posting it to the list.
Early next week it will also be on my website at:

http://www.caribe.net.mx/siegel/pynchon.htm

My communicating computer has been thoroughly virus-checked and the
server at my ISP is fire-walled, so I don't think anyone has to worry
about this attachment.

We are absolutely starved for intellectually stimulating books here in
Cancun. All they sell in English are horrible thriller and romance
paperbacks at absurd prices. If you enjoy the article and want to show
your appreciation, send any book -- new or used -- to the address below.
Let your own taste be your guide. Please don't be limited by the
preferences I express in my answer to Richard Romeo's query. There are
four other readers here and our tastes have become more universal by
necessity.

In addition to our omnivorous reading tastes, Anita and I enjoy decent
heterosexual erotica, but please don't send us anything with offensive
hard-core illustrations, as it really will be confiscated at customs and
might cause us problems. Eli, 15, is a super science nerd and has a
reading level of a high school senior. Jesse, 12, is an artist who wants
to be an architect. He reads about a year or two above his age. He needs
Walter Foster drawing books and any other books on technique. Your old
humanities and English literature text books will be thrilling for Eli
and Jesse. Faera, 25, is studying psychoanalysis. I would especially
appreciate copies of Gravity's Rainbow and Vineland. Any books that are
duplicates or that we don't want to keep will be donated to the library
of the Casa de la Cultura de Cancún.

Anyone who sends us a book will receive on of my famous Awards of Merit
for Service to Humanity, endorsed with your name in type, highly
suitable for framing and displaying to thwart accusations of social
uselessness. Be sure to include the full name in clear upper and lower
case. Send us an e-mail, too, so we can be on the look-out for your mail
and let you know if it doesn't arrive within two months.

	**************************WARNING!***********************************

VERY IMPORTANT: Do not under any circumstances put anything illegal in
anything you send us, no matter how well you think it is concealed. We
don't need anything like that and we definitely do not need the very
serious grief that will result if something illegal is found at customs.
*All* packages are opened and inspected by hand, as well as by sniffer
dogs, not just spot-checked. Cancun is a super high security zone and
resembles Singapore in many ways more than Mexico. They are mostly
looking for weapons and bombs, but if they find dope they can get quite
nasty.

	*********************************************************************

The quickest way to send things from the United States is by the United
States Postal Service Express Mail--about $10.50 for up to 500 grams, I
think. Gets here in 3-5 days. You can also use the book rate, which will
get here in three to six weeks. A really great trick is to attach a
registered air mail letter to the package. You then pay the registered
air mail rate for the letter and the book rate for the book, but it goes
air mail. If someone tells you that registered mail doesn't go to Mexico
(this happened to Anita's mother), ask to speak to a supervisor.

Communicating with this list has been one of my life's most satisfying
professional and artistic experiences. I will reply personally to any
letter I receive, but I will appreciate your telling me a little about
yourself and what you do professionally, as it will help me understand
you better.

As always,

-- 
Jules Siegel Website: http://www.caribe.net.mx/siegel/jsiegel.htm
Mail: Apdo. 1764 Cancun QR 77501 Mexico
Street: Green 16 Paseo Pok-Ta-Pok Zona Hotelera Cancun QR 77500 Mexico
Tel: 011-52-98 87-49-18 Fax 87-49-13 E-mail: jsiegel at mail.caribe.net.mx
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/19961026/de433bc0/attachment.html>