Open Letter to Mr. Jules Siegel

[Bruce Appelbaum]

Wow, I'm having a P-list flashback ....

I better not say anything or I might end up in the next JS book, too (I was
a runner-up do-doo head in Lineland).


end

Regards

Bruce Appelbaum  KC2JDL

----- Original Message -----
From: "The Great Quail" <quail at libyrinth.com>
To: "Jules Siegel" <siegel at prodigy.net.mx>
Cc: "Larry Daw" <l.daw at sympatico.ca>; "The Whole Sick Crew"
<pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 15, 2002 9:37 AM
Subject: Open Letter to Mr. Jules Siegel


> Mr. Siegel,
>
> Nice to hear from you again! It's always a pleasure to accommodate your
> wishes on Spermatikos Logos, as we have so often before.
>
> This time, you wrote:
>
> > I have to say that you are incredibly snide and unfair when it comes to
my
> > work. I received a notification to your llink to my Pynchon article. As
a
> > result, I've permanently removed the page with the notice below. Please
> > don't come back with some comment about my inability to understand
irony.
> > Your comment about "presents" isn't amusing, and it isn't correct. It's
just
> > a sophomoric and creepy little smear.
>
> I am sorry that a single remark on our Pynchon site has caused you to take
> down your memoir. Though you rather remind me of a spoiled child who, upon
> not getting his way, snatches up his toys and sulks home, you are of
course,
> perfectly free to remove your site as you see fit.
>
> For the record, my comment was not intended to be ironic, nor was it a
> creepy little smear, nor was it a jibe against your trolling for presents:
> it was just a tongue-in-cheek reaction to the nature of the gifts you
> expected to receive, both the welcome erotica and the unwelcome
> pharmaceuticals. You might find this difficult to believe, Mr. Siegel, but
> some of us find it amusing that people read your article and apparently
send
> you erotic books crammed with drugs. I was merely making a somewhat arch
> pointer to this, as is my own right as co-editor of the site.
>
> Believe it or not, Mr. Siegel, despite the fact I find you personally a
> self-centered, self-promoting eccentric basking in the glory of another
> man's work, I find you amusing in an Oscar-the-Grouch sort of way, and I
am
> actually sorry that I offended you.
>
> More sorry still am I that I caused you to remove your article, because I
> truly believe that Pynchon fans all over the world should be able to read
> it. In that light, If you agree to put your page back online, I will
retract
> my snotty, sophomoric, and creepy remark, and refrain from editorializing
on
> your Playboy article in future links.
>
> If you choose to hide your light under a petulant bushel, however, I am
> afraid I shall have to simply delete the link altogether, banishing
> countless Pynchon fans and Kilgore Trout enthusiasts to second-hand
> bookstores to search for Playboy magazines from the Seventies. Naturally,
> your good name will live on in the widely-read and hotly debated
"Lineland,"
> but I would still rather point our visitors directly to your informative
> article.
>
> Please reconsider, and I shall remove the offending text at once.
>
> Cordially,
>
> --Quail, so-editor of "Spermatikos Logos."
>
>