Digest urth.v026.n017

Patri10629 · 13 May 1999, 17:17 · from urth-v0026.mbox · original

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From: Patri10629 at aol.com
Subject: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v026.n017
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 13:17:33 EDT
Message-ID: <urth-v0026-0107 at digest.urth.net>
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Buds

All this speculation about Wolfe "speeding through," "making it up as he go=
es=20
along," "backfilling mistakes," "multiple drafts," "no idea where it's goin=
g"=20
are, in my opinion fruitless. How a writer gets to where he's going doesn't=20
matter. Nobody knows which corner Picasso started in, how many sketches he=20
had to do before the final "draft", which mistakes he covered over, which=20
mistakes were happy accidents. It doesn't tell you anything about the book =
to=20
know which order the author wrote it in, what pencils he used, if he was=20
drunk or sober, or having a bad or good day, or had previously named a=20
character "Benjie" before he became "Bob." And while we may be curious abou=
t=20
Wolfe's methods (as I am), I'm doubtful any insights we may learn will be=20
useful to me as a writer or a reader. Or will be relevant to the text. Who=20
cares how he got there? Let's talk about the "there.' That's slippery enoug=
h.

Don't mean to sound cranky. I've just sensitive to discussions with implied=20
value judgments based on moonshine theories of methodology. "Planned and=20
plotted" or "just babbling along," can never be the issue. It's magic, don'=
t=20
you think? Who cares how the wizard does it?

Patrick O'Leary

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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