An unexpected friendship? Was to me. And most/all? of the Plisters, I suggest

Thu Jan 23 16:23:26 UTC 2020

I will when I'm back home – at the moment in rehab after pericardectomy 2
weeks ago, and, Mark, I think it wasn't any fucking involved – only going
down over many many pages. It was a short story. Was it called "Innocence",
perhaps? Could you do the checking?

Am Do., 23. Jan. 2020 um 16:26 Uhr schrieb Charles Albert <
cfalbert at gmail.com>:

> You gotta share...
>
> On Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 9:13 AM Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ... a great cunnilingus tutorial,
>>
>> Remember another one by Brodkey, even more so.
>>
>> Am Do., 23. Jan. 2020 um 14:08 Uhr schrieb Charles Albert <
>> cfalbert at gmail.com>:
>>
>>> The Day of The Jackal was excellent pulp...
>>>
>>> Included a great cunnilingus tutorial, which one impressionable lad took
>>> to
>>> heart many decades ago.
>>>
>>> Thanks Fred....wherever you are.
>>>
>>>
>>> love,
>>>
>>> cfa
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jan 22, 2020, 7:56 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> > + ... "DEAR TOM GUINZBURG WHEREVER YOU ARE, I THOUGHT YOU WOULD LIKE TO
>>> > KNOW I'M NUMBER EIGHT AND MY FRIEND FREDDIE IS NUMBER TWO."/ Pynchon
>>> was
>>> > referring to the fact that Frederick Forsyth's second thriller, THE
>>> > ODESSA FILE, was No. 2 on the NEW YORK TIMES bestseller list and
>>> > GRAVITY'S RAINBOW was No. 8 ... +
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> https://books.google.de/books?id=btgXCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT127&lpg=PT127&dq=frederick+forsyth+pynchon&source=bl&ots=XzztUaCr-x&sig=ACfU3U2w-d_zdetjCnDUBZyOPsvwhe1IvA&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiB9fPp0ZTnAhVS4aQKHZaLBZQQ6AEwAnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=frederick%20forsyth%20pynchon&f=fals
>>> > <
>>> >
>>> https://books.google.de/books?id=btgXCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT127&lpg=PT127&dq=frederick+forsyth+pynchon&source=bl&ots=XzztUaCr-x&sig=ACfU3U2w-d_zdetjCnDUBZyOPsvwhe1IvA&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiB9fPp0ZTnAhVS4aQKHZaLBZQQ6AEwAnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=frederick%20forsyth%20pynchon&f=false
>>> > >
>>> > e
>>> >
>>> > One might infer that the friendship began around the time of Freddie's
>>> > first book, a runaway bestseller,* The Day of the Jackal.* 1971 His
>>> > publisher was
>>> >  Viking. Pynchon's publisher..
>>> >
>>> > *“The Day of the Jackal makes such comparable books such as The
>>> Manchurian
>>> > Candidate and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold seem like Hardy Boy
>>> > mysteries.”—The New York Times    ( memory or recreated one: made me
>>> want
>>> > to read it---but I didn't) *
>>> >
>>> > Such a quote *would *appeal to TRP. We know he has read Le Carre and
>>> liked
>>> > him without reservations of 'genre'. We also seem to know that he
>>> often,
>>> > through his agent, Ms Donadio and other industry insiders, got new
>>> books to
>>> > read before they were published*. Catch--22* seems almost
>>> circumstantially
>>> > provable as just one he read before publication.
>>> >
>>> > Then there is the forgotten Richard Condon. of *The Manchurian
>>> Candidate.
>>> > *Once
>>> > compared to "satirists" like, O, Thomas Pynchon and some other black
>>> > humorists. (Latterly, discredited for some plagiarism, including,
>>> someone
>>> > showed, passages of MC 'taken' from Graves,* I, Claudius.! *[A
>>> post-modern
>>> > mixer before the mix times? ] Famous for his* LISTS!*! Pynchon list
>>> fans.
>>> > Famous for extended metaphors ---"complex sentences that go bang at the
>>> > end"...and for
>>> > the fiction of information. Condon to Pynchon, like those
>>> > lost English writers who did the inferior Hamlets and King Lears before
>>> > Shakey?
>>> > Wikipedia: "The fiction of information"[edit
>>> > <
>>> >
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Condon&action=edit&section=4
>>> > >
>>> > ]
>>> >
>>> > Condon's works are difficult to categorize precisely: A 1971 *Time
>>> magazine
>>> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_magazine>* review declared that,
>>> > "Condon was never a satirist: he was a riot in a satire factory. He
>>> raged
>>> > at Western civilization and every last one of its works. He
>>> decorticated
>>> > the Third Reich, cheese fanciers, gossip columnists and the Hollywood
>>> star
>>> > system with equal and total frenzy." [6]
>>> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Condon#cite_note-6> The
>>> headline of
>>> > his obituary in *The New York Times* called him a "political
>>> novelist",[7]
>>> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Condon#cite_note-NYT-7> but
>>> went on
>>> > to say that, "Novelist is too limited a word to encompass the world of
>>> Mr.
>>> > Condon. He was also a visionary, a darkly comic conjurer, a student of
>>> > American mythology and a master of conspiracy theories, as vividly
>>> > demonstrated in 'The Manchurian Candidate.'"[7]
>>> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Condon#cite_note-NYT-7>
>>> Although
>>> > his
>>> > books combined many different elements, including occasional outright
>>> > fantasy and science fiction, they were, above all, written to
>>> entertain the
>>> > general public. He had, however, a genuine disdain, outrage, and even
>>> > hatred for many of the mainstream political corruptions that he found
>>> so
>>> > prevalent in American life. In a 1977 quotation, he said that:[8]
>>> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Condon#cite_note-8>
>>> >
>>> > "...people are being manipulated, exploited, murdered by their
>>> servants,
>>> > who have convinced these savage, simple-minded populations that they
>>> are
>>> > their masters, and that it hurts the head, if one thinks. People accept
>>> > servants as masters. My novels are merely entertaining persuasions to
>>> get
>>> > the people to think in other categories."
>>> >
>>> > With his long lists of absurd trivia and "mania for absolute details",
>>> > Condon was, along with Ian Fleming
>>> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fleming>, one of the early
>>> exemplars of
>>> > those called by Pete Hamill <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Hamill>
>>> in
>>> > a *New York Times* review, "the practitioners of what might be called
>>> the
>>> > New Novelism... Condon applies a dense web of facts to fiction....
>>> There
>>> > might really be two kinds of fiction: the fiction of sensibility and
>>> the
>>> > fiction of information... As a practitioner of the fiction of
>>> information,
>>> > no one else comes close to him."[9]
>>> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Condon#cite_note-9>
>>> > Quirks and characteristics[edit
>>> > <
>>> >
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Condon&action=edit&section=5
>>> > >
>>> > ]
>>> >
>>> > Condon attacked his targets wholeheartedly but with a uniquely original
>>> > style and wit that made almost any paragraph from one of his books
>>> > instantly recognizable. Reviewing one of his works in the
>>> *International
>>> > Herald Tribune*, playwright George Axelrod
>>> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Axelrod> (*The Seven Year Itch
>>> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Year_Itch_(play)>*, *Will
>>> Success
>>> > Spoil Rock Hunter
>>> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Success_Spoil_Rock_Hunter>*), who
>>> had
>>> > collaborated with Condon on the screenplay for the film adaptation of
>>> *The
>>> > Manchurian Candidate*, wrote:
>>> >
>>> > "The arrival of a new novel by Richard Condon is like an invitation to
>>> a
>>> > party.... the sheer gusto of the prose, the madness of his similes, the
>>> > lunacy of his metaphors, his infectious, almost child-like joy in
>>> composing
>>> > complex sentences that go bang at the end in the manner of exploding
>>> cigars
>>> > is both exhilarating and as exhausting as any good party ought to be."
>>> > --
>>> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>> >
>>> --
>>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>>
>>