House Rules

[S Johnson]

Dipping into W.S.Burroughs' collection of essays 'The Adding Machine'
at the moment and amidst a one titled 'Ten Years and a Billion Dollars'
he comes up with an anecdote about  William Randolph Hearst's house
rules which rang a few Pynchon-bells from my current GR reading.

"Hearst's house rule No.2: nobody may mention the word Death in
Mr.Hearst's presence. There is a very good magical reasson for that 
rule. Mr. Hearst was playing Death. Playing Death means you must
always be able to affect others, but they may never be allowed to
affect you."

That last line is a killer.

stuart johnson

-----------------------------------
S. T. Johnson	stj at holyrood.ed.ac.uk
		http://www.ed.ac.uk/~stj/homepage.html