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Fw: VN's on-line editors & "Torpid Smoke"
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Date
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Rodney Welch" <rodney41@mindspring.com>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2001 9:32 PM
Subject: Re: VN's on-line editors & "Torpid Smoke"
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (78
lines) ------------------
> The novel Mr. Howerton is referring to is, I believe, Jerzy Kozinski's
> "Steps." I haven't read it -- although I have heard from at least one
reader
> that the rejecting authorities were closer to the truth than the National
> Book Award judges.
>
> The McSweeney's piece is frighteningly funny. I often wonder what would
> happen if the geniuses of world literature submerged themselves in the
> groupbath of groupthink. I'm reminded, too, of that hilarious essay of
> Flannery O'Connor's, in which she encountered some how-to manual on
> novel-writing -- one chapter was memorably titled "Let's Plot!"
>
> Rodney Welch
> Columbia, SC
>
> > From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@GTE.net>
> > Reply-To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> > Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2001 19:31:21 -0700
> > To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> > Subject: Fw: VN's on-line editors & "Torpid Smoke"
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Phil Howerton" <phil@carolina.rr.com>
> > To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> >> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (46
> > lines) ------------------
> >
> >> The "Torpid Smoke" submission reminds me that about ten or fifteen
years
> > ago
> >> I ran across an article somewhere about a writer--he had been having
> > trouble
> >> getting his stuff published--who typed out a manuscript (and signed it)
of
> > a
> >> novel that had won the national book award five years before for the
best
> >> first novel and sent it to five or six of the leading book publishers
in
> > the
> >> country. Every one of them rejected it. None recognized it.
> >>
> >> What's it all about, Alfie.
> >>
> >> Phil
> >>
> >> Philip F. Howerton, Jr.
> >> 2812 Sunset Drive
> >> Charlotte, NC 28209
> >>
> >> "To be proud, to be brave, to be free"
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gte.net>
> >> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> >> Sent: Friday, July 20, 2001 4:00 PM
> >> Subject: VN's on-line editors & "Torpid Smoke"
> >>
> >>
> >>> EDITOR's NOTE. Paul Maliszewski had a very fine essay cum pictures on
> > the
> >>> jacket illustrations of Nabokov paperbacks in McSweeneys a year or so
> >> ago.
> >>>
> >>> "---------- Forwarded message ----------
> >>>
> >>>> Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 12:45:22 -0400 (EDT)
> >>>> From: Paul L. Maliszewski <plmalisz@mailbox.syr.edu>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On www.mcsweeneys.net today there's a short humorous piece by Mike
> >> Sacks,
> >>>> a writer who recently submitted VN's story "Torpid Smoke" to the
> >> scrutiny
> >>>> of a team of on-line editors, people who critique writing for money.
> >>>>
> >>>> I thought you and the Nabokov-l readers might find the sad results of
> >> the
> >>>> experiment good for a chuckle.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Paul
> >>
>
From: "Rodney Welch" <rodney41@mindspring.com>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2001 9:32 PM
Subject: Re: VN's on-line editors & "Torpid Smoke"
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (78
lines) ------------------
> The novel Mr. Howerton is referring to is, I believe, Jerzy Kozinski's
> "Steps." I haven't read it -- although I have heard from at least one
reader
> that the rejecting authorities were closer to the truth than the National
> Book Award judges.
>
> The McSweeney's piece is frighteningly funny. I often wonder what would
> happen if the geniuses of world literature submerged themselves in the
> groupbath of groupthink. I'm reminded, too, of that hilarious essay of
> Flannery O'Connor's, in which she encountered some how-to manual on
> novel-writing -- one chapter was memorably titled "Let's Plot!"
>
> Rodney Welch
> Columbia, SC
>
> > From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@GTE.net>
> > Reply-To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> > Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2001 19:31:21 -0700
> > To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> > Subject: Fw: VN's on-line editors & "Torpid Smoke"
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Phil Howerton" <phil@carolina.rr.com>
> > To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> >> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (46
> > lines) ------------------
> >
> >> The "Torpid Smoke" submission reminds me that about ten or fifteen
years
> > ago
> >> I ran across an article somewhere about a writer--he had been having
> > trouble
> >> getting his stuff published--who typed out a manuscript (and signed it)
of
> > a
> >> novel that had won the national book award five years before for the
best
> >> first novel and sent it to five or six of the leading book publishers
in
> > the
> >> country. Every one of them rejected it. None recognized it.
> >>
> >> What's it all about, Alfie.
> >>
> >> Phil
> >>
> >> Philip F. Howerton, Jr.
> >> 2812 Sunset Drive
> >> Charlotte, NC 28209
> >>
> >> "To be proud, to be brave, to be free"
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gte.net>
> >> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> >> Sent: Friday, July 20, 2001 4:00 PM
> >> Subject: VN's on-line editors & "Torpid Smoke"
> >>
> >>
> >>> EDITOR's NOTE. Paul Maliszewski had a very fine essay cum pictures on
> > the
> >>> jacket illustrations of Nabokov paperbacks in McSweeneys a year or so
> >> ago.
> >>>
> >>> "---------- Forwarded message ----------
> >>>
> >>>> Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 12:45:22 -0400 (EDT)
> >>>> From: Paul L. Maliszewski <plmalisz@mailbox.syr.edu>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On www.mcsweeneys.net today there's a short humorous piece by Mike
> >> Sacks,
> >>>> a writer who recently submitted VN's story "Torpid Smoke" to the
> >> scrutiny
> >>>> of a team of on-line editors, people who critique writing for money.
> >>>>
> >>>> I thought you and the Nabokov-l readers might find the sad results of
> >> the
> >>>> experiment good for a chuckle.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Paul
> >>
>