Editing Pynchon?

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

On Thu, 6 Aug 2009, Ian Livingston wrote:
> Which parts of the Sistine Chapel ceiling might be edited to improve
> the work, I wonder?


If you imply that I think I know how to shorten/modify AtD, you are
mistaking me for some other p-lister. While I do not consider the
novel very successful, I do not feel capable of amending it.

Whereas both articles by Luc Herman and John Krafft tell a wonderful
story of revising and editing - chiefly by Pynchon himself, with Cork
Smith as a very competent sparring partner.

As Luc and John write: "[I]t is already abundantly clear that Pynchon
mastered the art of novel writing at tremendous speed - between the
summer of 1961 and the spring of 1962, with only a few suggestions from
his editor to give him direction. Contrary to what he says (perhaps with
a little false modesty) in the introduction to _Slow Learner_ about his
sluggish development as a short-story writer, Pynchon was certainly a
fast learner when it came to the novel."
"Fast Learner: The Typescript of Pynchon's _V._ at the Harry Ransom
Center in Austin" Texas Studies in Literature and Language, Vol. 49,
No. 1, Spring 2007. P. 18


Heikki