The DNA of Literature -Paris Review Interviews

[dr_mabeuse]

Here's a site worth knowing about:

http://www.parisreview.org/literature.php

Interviews with most of the great writers of the last 50 years, as compiled by the Paris Review: Lawrence Durell, James Jones, T.S. Eliot, Faulkner, Thurber, Hemmingway... How they work and what they were trying to do.

Maybe they'll settle the come vs. cum question once and for all.

---dr.M.

 

[Guest]

Maybe they'll settle the come vs. cum question once and for all.

Ha ha ha. Thanks, I love reading author interviews. P.

 

[shereads]

Maybe they'll settle the come vs. cum question once and for all.

---dr.M.

Thurber settled it as far as I'm concerned, in "The Secret Sex Life of Walter Mitty."

His feud with Dorothy Parker is said to have started over cocktails at the Algonquin, when she insisted that Mitty could not have "spewed come" because both words were verbs. Editors at The New Yorker sided with Thurber, maintaining that "cum" was a gutter word.

 

[shereads]

bump inspired by the "cum vs. come" thread

 

[cantdog]

Re: Re: The DNA of Literature -Paris Review Interviews

Thurber settled it as far as I'm concerned, in "The Secret Sex Life of Walter Mitty."

His feud with Dorothy Parker is said to have started over cocktails at the Algonquin, when she insisted that Mitty could not have "spewed come" because both words were verbs. Editors at The New Yorker sided with Thurber, maintaining that "cum" was a gutter word.

Well, then. The New Goddam Yorker. That settles it, then.

I believe the answer to that question is, "what is the policy of the magazine you are writing for?" If it's the New Yorker, then you certainly have your answer: come it is. Midwood authors use cum. New Yorker authors use come. Write to your market.

 

[shereads]

Re: Re: Re: The DNA of Literature -Paris Review Interviews

Well, then. The New Goddam Yorker. That settles it, then.

I believe the answer to that question is, "what is the policy of the magazine you are writing for?" If it's the New Yorker, then you certainly have your answer: come it is. Midwood authors use cum. New Yorker authors use come. Write to your market.

In a later publication of the same story, Thurber changed "spewed come" to "blasted his load," apparently sensing a tendency toward conservatism in mainstream periodicals.