reading vollmann's "rising up and rising down" (abridged - I'm not that crazy) and came across this, "Shostakovich once said that a toothpick is an edited Christmas tree." Of course, I prefer Christmas trees to toothpicks so I guess I should be reading the unabridged version. I'd also argue that all of my poems are actually edited novels but that sounds way too pretentious so...never mind. Also tried reading Gaddis's "agape agape" but it gave me a blinding headache after only 50 pages. I'm sure that's a valid comment on the state of my intellect. Having recently heard about a drinking game based on the mystery/crime novels of James Lee Burke, I have to wonder if anyone's invented a drinking game based on Gaddis's work. I do have to say, the concept of a reading/drinking game seems very dangerous - all that drinking alone and all...not something that's every appealed to me - two beers alone at home and I just end up writing really really poor prose or even worse poetry.