/lit/ - Literature

They're professionals. They'll forward it, unless P told them not to.

>>21322585
>unless P told them not to.
That's what I'm worried about

>>21322575
>it is at least a pleasant fantasy for me to think about mongling with you professional folks.
>mongling

>>21322575
>one-shot amateur
What's the date of the letter?

>>21322575
God, I hate false modesty.

>>21323046
This is Pynchon's response to an invitation from Donald Barthelme asking him to attend a "postmodernist dinner" alongside other writers like William Gaddis, Kurt Vonnegut, and—weirdly enough—William H. Gass. The party took place in 1983 so this letter is probably from that time too, so this is long after Pynchon wrote V., TCoL49, and Gravity's Rainbow (and the whole kerfuffle that took place with that), and a year before he released Slow Learner. Pic rel is a photograph taken after the dinner

>>21322575
Please ask him to visit us.

>>21323087
/lit/ meetup 1983

>>21323157
Far far too many fuckable women.

>>21323211
1? lol

>>21323228
I count five and at least one bloke who'd do well in a dress.

>>21323087
Thanks for the reply anon

>>21322676
this post brought me back

>>21322575
he's fuckin dead, man.

on a side note, Joseph McElroy is pretty nice and responds to emails.

>>21323970
>he's fuckin dead, man.
"Ominous words. Say it ain't so."
But for real though, the thought has occured to me. How long after his death do you think they'd wait to announce it?

>on a side note, Joseph McElroy is pretty nice and responds to emails.
Really? That's nice to hear. Have you emailed him? I wonder what he's up to these days. Only slightly related but it was because of McElroy that I discovered that, normally, when authors sell their manuscripts to a publisher, the copyright lasts until the author dies + 70 years, which is why, if the publisher decides to be a dick and stops printing their books, the author can't really do anything about it. This is why almost all McElroy's books are incredibly hard to find / out of print / only had one or two editions.

>>21324013
i don't think they'll ever announce it, i wouldn't, since it's funnier that way, then i'd have my families release a book every 20 or so years well after the biblical limit is reached, for the lols.

ah that explains a lot about him, he seemed too nice to ever want his works to be limited only to those able to afford it, notwithstanding ebooks, naturally. Yeah, i emailed him a simple question about the confidence man several years back in relation to A Smuggler's Bible (wild book, lots to dig into) and he answered promptly and without any sense of impatience. I emailed him again about two years back, asking him if he was a freemason and where the literati hung out these days, and he sent me a link to his substack which has some of his work, (an unreleased novel) and some publications of gass and alexander theroux. very nice guy, but be neither confirmed nor denied the masonic query. the reason i asked is the very strong history of masonry in literature at least all the way back to the rivalry between swift and fielding

>>21324042
glad to hear that McElroy is a nice dude. i'm reading Lookout Cartridge right now and it's amazing. i hope it gets a reprint someday.

>>21323087
Gass fits right in with that crowd desu

>>21323059
>projecting

>>21322575
They're professionals. They'll forward it, unless P told them not to.

>>21323087
Gass fits in more than Gaddis because of his essays, but neither were particularly postmodern in their fiction back in 83. So far the only Gaddis I have read which could be called postmodern is Agape Agape, The Recognitions and JR are very much modernist, have yet to read the other two yet.

>>21324013
>if the publisher decides to be a dick and stops printing their books, the author can't really do anything about it.

Many book contracts have a clause that if the book is out of print for a certain period of time (could be as little as a year), then the publishing rights revert to the author. Don't know if that's the case with McElroy. Ebooks and print-on-demand can help to fill in the gap for out-of-print authors whose sales might not warrant standard hard copy publication.

>>21324013
Unless McElroy sold/signed away the copyright to the publisher than that would not be the case and it is unlikely he sold or signed away the copyrights. Publishers get publishing rights which is sort of a leasing of copyright, these generally last around a decade or two and have a clause regarding the forfeit of publishing rights if it goes longer than x number of years without being printed and possibly a clause regard if it does not go back into print within x number of years after an edition sells out.

In McElroy's case it is almost certainly that there is just not enough interest in his work to justify reprints. It is possible he is the sort that never concerned himself with contracts and just signed what ever the publishing company stuck in front of him without ever reading it or consulting a contract lawyer or even his agent so signed a pile of terrible contracts, but I doubt it.

>>21322585
fpbp

>>21324965
>I'm just le one-hit wonder amateur and you are le professionals uwu

>>21325515
At that time he was, he had a fairly long dry spell after GR.