Lineland

[Craig Clark]

I was one of the people to receive a private e-mail from Dale L. 
Larson telling me I had been quoted in _Lineland_ and offering 
me a review copy. In principle, I have no problems with the 
whole Jules Siegel/P-list business coming out in book form, 
assuming that someone believes there is a market for such 
a book, but I do have a problem with the idea that I've been
quoted in a book without Siegel or Larson having the decency 
to ask me if they could do so. Now Larson offers us 
an apologia:

  > I do understand the feelings of wishing that you'd been told sooner, preferably 
  > asked.  In a perfect world, I would have prefered to ask the permission of 
  > everyone quoted in the book and to uninclude anyone who didn't want to be 
  > included. ... Alas, as a practical matter, the book would probably have come 
  > out a year later (more likely not at all), if we'd tried to get every individual in the
  > book to give us his or her permission in advance ... Imagine the logistics of trying 
  > to create the book (which took man-years of work after Jules left Pynchon-L), then
  > showing it to people who want changes, don't want to be in it all, etc.  Once
  > major changes are made, you've got to go back and show those changes to
  > everyone (because you may have needed to include more material from someone
  > else, or you were asked to paraphrase something someone said rather than
  > quoting it, or whatever). What about someone who says "OK,"  and then later
  > says "No, I don't want to be in it" (either because they change their mind or
  > the book changed as other people requested changes)? ...   We tried to think of 
  > other ways we might minimize any hurt feelings.

What stopped Siegel, while working on his manuscript, or Larson while
editing it, from e-mailing each person they wanted to quote to ask 
permission? I'm sorry, but this strikes me as pure horse-shit. Larson 
found it easy enough to contact us to tell us that the book was a fait
accompli, but is trying to tell us that it wasn't possible to contact us to 
find out if we wanted to be quoted during the six or so months that the 
manuscript was in preperation. The fact that Larson didn't ask us - and
that he accepted a manuscript for publication whose author clearly had not 
asked his sources if they wanted to be quoted - makes his apology ring hollow 
indeed. It strikes me as profundly unethical, and in my experience 
publishers get unethical when they are concerned, not with art or 
freedom of expression or any other noble set of values, but with 
money. I suspect that the timing of _Lineland_'s release has much to 
do with the fact that _Mason and Dixon_ is about to make the kind of 
splash that an underwater nuclear test makes, and that both Siegel 
and Larson are hoping to surf a little on some of those ripples.



Craig Clark

"Living inside the system is like driving across
 the countryside in a bus driven by a maniac bent
 on suicide."
   - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"