Anyone want to review the DeLillo? And more!

[The Great Quail]

Dear Pynchon List,

If I can take a moment to post a personal thing here.....

As some of you may know, I am Editorial Director of a site called The 
Modern Word, which houses a site I founded in 1995 called the 
Libyrinth, a network of sites devoted to "challenging" modern 
writers. This network of sites includes Spermatikos Logos, the 
Pynchon site I run with Dr. Larry Daw. It also includes sites on 
Joyce, Eco, Borges, Garcia Marquez, and very soon, Beckett. The 
Modern Word includes a section called The Scriptorium, which has 
smaller pages on writers such as Winterson, Gaddis, Barth, Queneau, 
Ballard, Barthelme, and so on. Every month I try to mail out a 
newsletter called Spiral-Bound, which contains book reviews, updates, 
and featured links.

We have a very very tiny budget, and are basically propped up by a 
few philanthropist Joyceans here in New York. I have been running the 
site the best I can, though it has been growing almost out of my 
control -- keeping everything up to date, answering emails, laying 
out new sites, editing freelance writers and contributors, all this 
keeps me pretty busy.

I am writing the Pynchon List to basically ask for help. This is one 
of the most intelligent and diverse groups of people I know -- 
cranky, too! -- and I was wondering if any members might like to 
share some of their opinions and knowledge outside the List. There 
are a few things that I think some people here might like lend a hand 
with, so let me post them:

1. A review of "The Body Artist." I would be delighted to feature a 
good, solid review of this work in the next issue of Spiral-Bound, 
which goes out Feb 15. The last few reviews were written by me, 
including Borges' "This Craft of Verse" and Danielewski's "House of 
Leaves." Not only am I getting sick of hearing my own opinions, but I 
have been so immersed in Beckett that I have not had time to read 
anything else!

2. Other reviews for Spiral-Bound. I have good people lined up to 
review Winterson's "The Power Book" and the re-release of "Jerusalem 
Quartet," but there are a few books I would be delighted to feature 
-- the re-release of "Blood Meridian," Chabon's new book, Fuentes new 
novel, and even recent works by Rushdie and Wallace. I would welcome 
intelligent reviews on any of these works.

3. Pynchon-related reviews and summaries. I have been trying to 
expand Spermatikos Logos to include blurbs on common Pynchon-crit 
works, many of which I have not read. (I am soon going to post a 
review of "Pynchon and Mason & Dixon," though.)

4. Scriptorium Pages. There are a few authors that really deserve a 
good introduction on the Scriptorium, such as Don DeLillo, David 
Foster Wallace, Haruki Murakami, Jose Saramago, Kurt Vonnegut, Salman 
Rushdie; but no one has yet volunteered to author pages on these 
people. I would very much welcome pages on these and other writers! 
If you check out the Scriptorium, you can see the sort of page I am 
after.

5. General submissions to "The Daily Muse." This is our "quote of the 
day," which also includes literary trivia questions. It appears on 
the homepage, in the upper right corner. Frankly speaking, I am 
running low on quotes and literary trivia questions! I would welcome 
any submissions.

Anyway, the sad fact is, any reviews or submissions need to be 
motivated by a love for literature. I can't offer any money, fame, or 
dates with Rushdie's wife. All I can offer is a forum that goes out 
to 100,000 visitors each month, is supported by some very good people 
-- academics and otherwise -- and the rosy glow of reading your own 
opinions on the Web.

If anyone has any suggestions, comments, or just wants to tell me to 
take a flying leap at a rolling donut, please contact me privately. I 
hope I have not offended anyone by posting this to the List, my 
intention if to pull more people into a growing community, not to 
exploit an existing one.

Thanks,

--Quail

URLs:

Homepage:
http://www.TheModernWord.com

Scriptorium:
http://www.TheModernWord.com/scriptorium

Spiral-Bound:
http://www.TheModernWord.com/spiral-bound.html

Spermatikos Logos:
http://www.TheModernWord.com/pynchon






-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Great Quail, Keeper of the Libyrinth:
http://www.TheModernWord.com

"Countlessness of livestories have netherfallen by this plage, flick 
as flowflakes, litters from aloft, like a waast wizzard all of 
whirlworlds. Now are all tombed to the mound, isges to isges, erde 
from erde . . . (Stoop) if you are abcedminded, to this claybook, 
what curious of signs (please stoop) in this allaphbed! Can you rede 
(since We and Thou had it out already) its world? . . . Speak to us 
of Emailia!"
          --James Joyce, Finnegans Wake