Editing Pynchon?

[David Morris]

Offlist a P-lister questioned whether edit and sketches are the same.
I'm making my answer public, but I don't mind further offlist
responses from that person.  I'll just keep his/her identity private:

There are certainly correspondences between sketches and edits.
Editing text can happen over and over again until the work is made
public.  It can grow or shrink in size.  Parts can be eliminated
entirely and no one will ever know they were there once made public.
Similarly once a mural is painted, it can be painted over again and
again, re-plastered and refrescoed, until the image is unveiled.  So
for all we know the Sistine Chapel was thus edited before its
unveiling.

Also, editing does not always come from another party.  Artists are
supposed to be self-editing.  And authors don't always accept editors
suggestions

Sketches are to murals as notes, outlines, sheets & drafts are to
novels.  Sketches contemplate at various levels of scale and detail
the ultimate entire work, just as the preliminary elements of a novels
do.  Not all sketches make it into the final image.  They are edited
out, or rearranged.  Sketches are decidedly part of the editing
process of a final image.

David Morris