Open Letter to Mr. Jules Siegel

[Jules Siegel]

----- 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 8:37 AM
Subject: Open Letter to Mr. Jules Siegel


> For the record, my comment was not intended to be ironic, nor was it a
creepy little smear,

Go back to school and learn how to write if you are unable to do what you
intend.

> nor was it a jibe against your trolling for presents:

Books.

> some of us find it amusing that people read your article and apparently
send you erotic books

One item in a list of preferences in -- repeat -- books, but I guess a bit
too much for the prurient adolescent mind.

>crammed with drugs.

People have been known to put joints in packages and have specifically asked
me if it was ok to send me LSD.

> 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.

Then why offend me again with the remarks above.

As far as basking in the glory of another man's work, to you Pynchon is
awesomely famous, but how does he compare with Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan,
Sterling Hayden or even Farrah Fawcett? I have yet to get a hostile remark
from a Beach Boys list even though my article on Brian Wilson was far more
revealing than the one on Pynchon.

> If you choose to hide your light under a petulant

You have a lot to learn about convincing people to go along with you.

> bushel, however, I am afraid I shall have to simply delete the link
altogether,

Do it.

> banishing countless Pynchon fans and Kilgore Trout enthusiasts to
second-hand bookstores to search for Playboy magazines from the Seventies.

What do I owe them?

> 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.
>
I'd rather they buy the book and pay for the information. I'm sure that
Thomas Pynchon gives his work away free on the Internet.