Open Letter to Mr. Jules Siegel

[Mutualcode at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/17/02 11:02:43 PM, fqmorris at yahoo.com writes:

<< Who stirred up this latest needful one?
 >>

Quail. But with no especial malice aforethought.

Two points:

- Siegel's use of *puerile* seems to indicate he might be lurking.
If so, too bad he doesn't contribute more, even if it's gratis.

- The hi-lite of the Jules and Chrissie Show was when Chrissie
supposedly visited with Jules in Mexico and through Jules was
"made available" to listers in order to satisfy our puerile
curiosity about the personal life of the guy *you* might or might
not decide to meet down the street for a beer. (Or joint, by
then, it being his "GR phase") Through Chrissie, he came 
across as a sort of neurotic Levine- as concerned as much w/ his 
appetite for pizza as facing up to his obligations to his "friends,"
divided loyalties, indeed. Our fella was clearly the third man out, 
which seemed to be the implicit message of the whole online 
fiasco, that, and demonstrating just how puerile we all really are 
(or were).

The whole thing ruined a perfectly good discussion of GR, if
I remember correctly; a book which Jules claimed, at the time,
never to have read. Although that claim seemed to contradict 
some of the spirit of his Playboy Art. (I haven't read it since it 
came out- something about Pynchon doing incredibly long lines 
of cocaine  off the table, putting his head in the gas oven, and 
bad teeth-) At any rate, the spectacular accomplishment of GR 
was what the Playboy Art was implicitly trading on, inspite of
Jules' absurd denial of familiarity with that book.

"Playboy" was almost into its post-kitsch phase by that time,
it being the early Jimmy Carter years, and I remember feeling
vaguely let down by the article, having nurtured a furious
curiosity about the genius behind GR in the 3 or 4 years since
it had appeared. There was no P-l back then, and it was rare to
bump into anyone else who had taken the book seriously, much
less gotten through it, besides academic powder butts. So the
Art caught my eye. "Jules Siegel" did not register, and I remember
wondering if the whole thing wasn't some avant garde fictional
technique. It just didn't feel authentic- and, it provided me with
absolutely no insight into the mind behind GR, which is what I
was really interested in, rather than just reading about a number 
of unpleasant people failing to resolve difficulties in their lives.


respectfully