The Best Introduction Ever

Middlebrow directed me to this a long time ago: Thomas Pynchon's introduction for a newly collected book of older short stories, Slow Learner. Pynchon takes opportunity (20 pages) to explain, in great detail, why his stories are kind of crappy. This is so refreshing to read in today's enervating climate of constant self-promotion; I would love to be able to introduce my documentary this way.

"My first reaction, rereading these stories, was oh my God, accompanied by physical symptoms we shouldn't dwell upon. My second thought was about some kind of wall-to-wall rewrite. These two impulses have given way to one of those episodes of middle-aged tranquility, in which I now pretend to have reached a level of clarity about the young writer I was back then. I mean I can't very well just 86 this guy from my life. On the other hand, if through some as yet undeveloped technology I were to run into him today, how comfortable would I feel about lending him money, or for that matter even stepping down the street to have a beer and talk over old times?"

Great, really great.

As for the stories, well, I took Pynchon by his word and gave them a miss.