SLPAD - 27

[Michael Bailey]

Spy craft depicted in fiction, as reflected in early Pynchon:

“The net effect was eventually to build up in my uncritical brain a
peculiar shadowy vision of the history preceding the two world wars.
Political decision-making and official documents did not figure in this
nearly as much as lurking, spying, false identities, psychological games.
Much later I got around to two other mighty influences, Edmund Wilson’s To
the Finland Station and Machiavelli’s The Prince, which helped me to
develop the interesting question underlying the story—is history personal
or statistical?”

A question he developed in _V._ & GR?


I supposedly read _The Prince_ for a class, but all I can remember is
thinking what a prick the guy must have been. Like the nasty advisor who
gets ousted by the good guy in any half-decent movie.

Deep, I know.

Anyone see beyond that to comment on Machiavellian influence in Pynchon?
Bueller? (-;


Edmund Wilson - wife-beater, but at least while he was writing, he wasn’t
actively doing that…

But Mary McCarthy wasn’t a cowering coward, though.

“When they fought, he would retreat into his study and lock the door; she
would set piles of paper on fire and try to push them under it."

Kind of a curmudgeon,

(Per Wikipedia)

Throughout his career, Wilson often answered fan mail and outside requests
for his time with this form postcard:

"Edmund Wilson regrets that it is impossible for him to: Read manuscripts,
write books and articles to order, write forewords or introductions, make
statements for publicity purposes, do any kind of editorial work, judge
literary contests, give interviews, conduct educational courses, deliver
lectures, give talks or make speeches, broadcast or appear on television,
take part in writers' congresses, answer questionnaires, contribute to or
take part in symposiums or 'panels' of any kind, contribute manuscripts for
sales, donate copies of his books to libraries, autograph books for
strangers, allow his name to be used on letterheads, supply personal
information about himself, supply photographs of himself, supply opinions
on literary or other subjects".





but by all accounts a heck of a great writer.

The theme of _To the Finland Station_ seems quite congenial to an interest
in emancipatory thought…

I loved Marguerite Young’s poetic treatment of the many utopian characters
& thought currents in her biography of Eugene Victor Debs, though it took
me like a year to read. Anybody familiar with TtFS care to recommend or
dis-recommend it?