The Glory Days

[Will Layman]

Well, I don't know if reading the archives is quite the same as having been
there, then.  Jules was a fascinating character -- but a frustrating
character -- quite aside from his Pynchon connection.  He would be
interesting and funny one day, then highly combative the next.  He would
give and take a joke, then suddenly become wildly offended at someone else's
joke -- then when called on that he would claim that he had been joking all
along and WE (in thinking he was actually offended) were "humor impaired"
and should check the "humor implants" in our brains.

Before LINELAND became public, Jules established himself as one of the most
patronizing and condescendingly schizy people you'd ever been in contact
with.  Then, when he started playing the poor, deprived artist -- asking us
to send him books in his isolated, third-world location -- people started to
really resent him.

When LINELAND emerged, quite aside from the fact that many of us had our
words from Pynchon-L placed in his book (indeed, the book seemed to be make
up primarily of our words rather than his) without being asked, there was
the notion that it had all been an act conceived of the "create" the book.
This just made the whole thing -- that had been infused with a fair amount
of emotion and sincerity by many members of the list -- seem more
duplicitous.

When Jules' agent came on the list and started dealing with us like a
lawyer, it seems even a bit more sour.

I was highly entertained by Jules, but that's what I remember it being like.

Yes, I think this stupid photo and the PLAYBOY "interview" would not have
gotten ANY credibility back then.  The Jules thing was real, and weird, and
interesting.  Not much on this list in the last year or two has even come
close.

-- Will

On 6/25/05 7:22 PM, "jbor at bigpond.com" <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:

> And, speaking of Pynchon apocrypha, it has always seemed odd that Jules
> Siegel provoked so much hostility, even, apparently, in the
> pre-"Lineland" era. From what little I've seen in the archives, Jules,
> a friend of the author, was often coherent and polite. Why is it that
> his personal remembrances of Pynchon weren't palatable, where kooky
> Bugs Bunny teeth are (answers itself really), and hoaxes like the Japan
> Playboy "interview" or the Unabomber rumour are likewise just fine and
> dandy, and woebetide anyone who dares question them? For a long time
> any time Jules's name was mentioned here there would be a sudden
> scourge of trollthrops and periphery-dwellers closing down the
> discussion. ... Moreso than usual, anyway.
> 
> I've never seen or read _Lineland_, by the way. Just making
> conversation.
> 
> best
> 
> p.s. I'm going to put my money on the table and state the obvious: the
> current "mittelwerk" and "terrance" are fake.
> 
> On 25/06/2005, at 6:53 AM, jbor wrote:
> 
>> Yes. He ran a couple of the major group reads, and he ran them well.
>> In between times he was a pretty dab hand at sorting the wheat from
>> the chaff.
>> 
>> best
>> 
>> On 25/06/2005, at 1:42 AM, Ghetta Life wrote:
>> 
>>> Well, A. Dinn didn't "run" the list, but he did "lead" it by the
>>> example of his manners and scholarship.
>>> 
>>> Ghetta
>> 
>