"played the P-list like a violin..."

[jbor at bigpond.com]

On 21/07/2006:

> Has anyone looked back to see exactly how long that book description 
> might have been up before it was taken down?

Pretty sure it was less than 24 hours, though you can't be sure how 
long it was before Jeremy first came across it.

Assuming now (headslap and exclamation marks) that it is a message from 
"the master" (as that Slade journo who misquoted the Penguin publicity 
chief and then issued a retraction dubbed him), it's a bit odd.

Maybe it is a parody. I can see that line of thinking now too.

Revisiting this blog contribution:

"After World War I in the Balkans, a region troubled by moronic 
fecklessness, anarchist balloonists and decadents explore an 
unpredictable future. Mostly they are just trying to pursue their 
lives. Characters stop what they're doing to sing what are for the most 
part stupid songs in obscure languages, highlighted by a cameo 
appearance of Groucho Marx. Let the reader beware, contrary-to-the-fact 
occurrences occur."

http://toddius.livejournal.com/407428.html

Yes. It's just a blurb too.

The question is not so much what (and it isn't much of a blurb, as 
blurbs go, really), but why? Waves of reductivism and expansionism? In 
gradual doses? Pumping us up for a massive case of gigantism on 5/12? 
Perhaps it is that viral insemination doohickey through the iOsphere 
that was mentioned. Though the marketing strategy implications of that 
line of thought are still problematic:

http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/index.php?/weblog/comments/860/

Was the elided subject of the Subject Line up top meant to be "TRP"? Or 
"Jules"?

best