On recent publishing strategies,with a little blowhard history and some airy speculation

[Michael Bailey]

> with that hiding, he just stayed with it. I guess it's as simple as Michael
> Naumann once said on the radio: "If Pynchon would have done thousands and
> thousands of public readings like, say, Martin Walser, he would have lost too
> much time which he needed for research, writing and --- life".

I think Dickens and Twain both rather burned themselves out with the
public appearances.  Did a lot for sales, no doubt, and for the cause
of reading in general, but at a great cost to themselves.

>All you'd need  - in case you're
> interested in meeting Thomas Pynchon as a person - is an airplane ticket plus
> some days of your time for the exact localization. He may would try to run away
> from you, though ...
>

yeahp, the only acceptable ways are either, like, he moves in next to
you and you talk over the fence, or else you write something on the
order of _Satanic Verses_ and he calls you up and invites you over,
like he did for Salman Rushdie. (Rushdie said Pynchon liked to stay up
too late, though, and tired him (SR) out.)



-- 
"The general agreement is that language should be a kind of honey.  I
like it to be a kind of speed." - Michael Moorcock