Fwd: The Glory Days OFF LIST

[jbor at bigpond.com]

In light of the censorship strictures implemented by said Jules, an 
offlist post which warrants wider notice.

best

Begin forwarded message:
>
> Date: 30 June 2005 12:14:11 AM
> To: <jbor at bigpond.com>
> Subject: Re: The Glory Days OFF LIST
>
> Cleaning out my inbox--
>
>>> Someone offered to send me _Lineland_ a while back but I'm really not
>>> interested in reading it, because I know that it only presents one 
>>> side
>>> of the story -- Jules's -- and that it would be a pretty jaundiced 
>>> view
>>> at that. But the other question which is fascinating is whether Jules
>>> subscribed to the list with the intention of writing _Lineland_, or
>>> whether he put it together out of revenge after the way he perceived 
>>> he
>>> had been treated here. I suspect the latter is the case.
> Jules and I became offline "pen pals" for a several months, and as I 
> was the editor in chief of my college rag at the time, he sent me a 
> copy of _Lineland_ to review in the paper.  He didn't have to do that, 
> prolly knew my review wouldn't sell many--if any--copies, but he sent 
> it to me anyway, which I thought was nice of him.  The book _is_ 
> one-sided, but Jules has quite a sense of humor and it is funny in 
> spots.  Notice that no one who is quoted is saying that they were 
> misquoted; only that his method was, to them, devious and underhanded 
> (I agree).  From my offlist correspondence with him, I believed him 
> when he said that he didn't get on the list with the intention of 
> writing the book but that he saw the opportunity to cash in, and did.  
> Millison wrote recently that Jules is very bitter, and he is, but he 
> is also a very interesting guy, and that only came through in our 
> offlist posts--he preferred to posture, gloat, criticize, denigrate, 
> etc onlist.  The anonymity of pynchon-l, I spose.  But offline, we 
> rarely talked about the list or Pynch--we talked a lot about art, 
> literature in general and his life in Cancun.
> All in all, I found him to be a pretty normal human.
> Not really trying to defend him, but I guess I am.
> Have a great day,
>