Watts article

[Meg Larson]

it was sed:

>> I don't believe that Pynchon's purpose in writing the article was to
>> increase sales of his novels or to bring his name under wider notice, or
>> even to make a quick buck (which might have been the case with the 
>> 'Esquire'
>> and 'Cavalier' gigs.) I think that's quite a cynical view of why he wrote
>> the piece.
>
<snip>

Writing to make money is cynical?
As the great Mencken once wrote, on the subject of writing:

"The impulse to create beauty is rather rare in literary men . . .
Far ahead of it comes the yearning to make money.
And after the yearning to make money comes the yearning to make a noise."

Whatever Pynch's intentions were, however noble, he chose to make money and 
a noise, and if "Watts" is nothing else, it is noise.  As hard as it may be 
to believe, sometimes the quick buck is the real intention.