Spot On

Q: That’s spot on.

If I were a publisher, I would go to the “Howl” celebration to see if there were any writers outside, protesting.

A: None did, or if they did, they didn’t get a copy of my flier.

Of if they got it they dismissed it as whining.

Just another whiner.

This is a long-standing misunderstanding.

In Zyx 54, Arnold Skemer, editor, says,

…evocations of the same themes that Saunders aficionados are long familiar with, i.e., one long series of gripes about the injustice of the writing/rewards structure in American publishing (=New York), about why he’s a cult writer doing “enema verite,” when surely he disserves far more. There’s no point in arguing with Jack about why his attitudes lead him and us nowhere. Jack is Jack. In a certain way he enjoys his role and relishes living out his own myth, so let it be.

Q: What’s Zyx?

A: XYZ, backwards.

Q: Do you enjoy your role and relish living out your own myth?

A: I am testing hypotheses.

I want to be discovered and recognized.

Q: Zyx knows who you are, and what you are up to.

A: Yes.

I want to be discovered and recognized by New York.

Q: A goat wants horns but he dies buttheaded.

A: Yes.

Cow shit is green, and heaven is a green room.

A cowboy loves cow shit.

Do a hoolie [houlihan]. Cut didoes. A goat-roping is as good as a gopher race, a rattlesnake round-up, or Possum Day in Wausau. It’s not my first time at the rodeo.

Do you know the citizens of Vernon, Florida, thought Errol Morris was making fun of them?

Q: They’re hicks. What do they expect?

A: We all want to be treated with respect.

Q: Was the “Howl” protest the height of your writing career?

A: I met Richard Kostelanetz.

We had corresponded but not met.