Pynchon's reply

[Michael Bailey]

Keith quoted:
He would burn his letters in a bonfire; it would take most of the day...
And he would pay the cost"
     (_Wanting_ by Richard Flanagan, pp. 47-8)

which I presume may have been a reaction to

"He wanted to show my short story to his New York agent, but, before
he had the chance, I rolled the manuscript up and set it on fire like
a torch in the night as I bicycled nude down the main drag. Ervin had
just paid the rent on my flat in Redondo beach to give me an
opportunity to finish the piece...."
http://themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_biography.html -------

to which I would append that the story did sound pretty good and I was
disappointed that the fellow burned it, but I hope for a better
outcome for him than soul-forfeiture.  Those were weird times...
I'd go on to say that, as the cat in the adage (or in the hat), "many
are called but few are chosen" to write fiction...

and furthermore, hemming and hawing, probably some of us on the list
have abnegated or absquatulated on our own fictions in a more or less
flamboyant fashion

and - only half in jest - ready to be shouted down - suggest a p-list
story round robin after the IV read...interested listers could sign up
to write a story "in the manner of" OBA for a number of successive
weeks...maybe a 3,000 word maximum, one week to produce and emit the
story, one week to respond to comments and theories about it...

just to experience the paradigm from another 1,000 points of view


-- 
"What's the story, morning glory?  What's the word, hummingbird?" -
from Bye Bye Birdie