Not P but DFW: pitched to Rolling Stone

[Mike Jing]

Thanks for the reply, Mark.


On Tue, Feb 10, 2026 at 7:15 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think this may be possible: This gig came to Wallace from Rolling Stone,
> like Hunter Thompson's did when he wrote* Fear & Loathing*
> *on the Campaign Trail.*...Rolling Stone mag is getting the campaign info
> from the parties, in this paragraph from the GOP. A real "down week"
> in maybe a literal quote and "an interval almost breathtaking in its
> political unsexiness" are Wallace' s words.
>
> On Mon, Feb 9, 2026 at 1:46 PM Corbeau Castrum via Pynchon-l <
> pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
>
>> Yeah, I think it means that someone (a journalist or editor?) told RS
>> editors that that week was boring in terms of political events, and so any
>> political journalism would have to be about the hard labor of political
>> campaigning rather than specific primary elections.
>>
>>
>> Sent from Monopolistic Pocket Computer™
>>
>> -------- Original Message --------
>> On Monday, 02/09/26 at 17:07 Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> The following excerpt is from David Foster Wallace's *Up, Simba*:
>>
>> 7 to 13 February is pitched to Rolling Stone as a real “down week” on the
>> GOP Trail, an interval almost breathtaking in its political unsexiness.
>> Last week was the NH shocker; next week is the mad dash to SC’s 19 Feb.
>> primary, which the Twelve Monkeys all believe could now make or break both
>> McCain and the Shrub. This week is the trenches: flesh-pressing,
>> fund-raising, traveling, poll-taking, strategizing, grinding out
>> eight-event days in Michigan and Georgia and New York and SC.
>>
>> Does the first sentence mean that someone pitched this idea to the
>> magazine? It may seem obvious, but somehow I read it completely wrong the
>> first time.
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>