Post Aipk6yrmwnhrQuEAka by dan131riley@federate.social
 (DIR) More posts by dan131riley@federate.social
 (DIR) Post #AiopwExRBaOiiiAhxQ by ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
       2024-06-11T13:12:44Z
       
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       One other PG Wodehouse tidbit:You often see the claim that he wrote 400 pages of notes per novel. Superficially this seems plausible, since the novels are so rich. But does it? The notes are longer than the books? I mean it's not like this characters have rich backgrounds or complex motivations.WELL, as far as I can tell the "400 pages" claim originates in a joking preface Wodehouse wrote for "Thank you, Jeeves." In a private letter of May 10, 1931, he refers to 20,000 words for a novel.
       
 (DIR) Post #Aioq5hXsGbjbzPj56m by ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
       2024-06-11T13:14:27Z
       
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       Incidentally, he refers to that as long. Clearly, 20k words is far short of 400 pages. All I can figure is that people interpreted the statement in that preface, which was chock full of jokes and hyperbole, as being the truth. It's a good story, but unless someone can show me these 400 pages of notes for a book, I'm inclined to believe it's not even close to the truth and is a long the lines of saying "I spent a million years writing this book."
       
 (DIR) Post #AioujIX15QutoJSfpo by Phosphenes@glasgow.social
       2024-06-11T14:06:19Z
       
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       @ZachWeinersmith Wodehouse did indeed spend a million years writing Right Ho Jeeves, even taking preliminary notes in the late Mesozoic era.
       
 (DIR) Post #Aiov6nkXBWSBI9zXge by SKleefeld@mastodon.social
       2024-06-11T14:10:40Z
       
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       @ZachWeinersmith Maybe he did have 400 pages, but there was only one word on each page.
       
 (DIR) Post #Aioynb5wPV3WMI6QvQ by FeralRobots@mastodon.social
       2024-06-11T14:52:01Z
       
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       @ZachWeinersmith I feel comfortable with your conclusion Wodehouse was joking. However I know many people whose notes easily exceed the story length in wordcount.
       
 (DIR) Post #Aip7h2H3rJSMDLFZNg by lienrag@mastodon.tedomum.net
       2024-06-11T16:31:38Z
       
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       @ZachWeinersmith "Clearly, 20k words is far short of 400 pages."Have you heard about something called "German" ?
       
 (DIR) Post #Aip93iU1htHlRrh3TM by lawrenceevalyn@zirk.us
       2024-06-11T16:46:52Z
       
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       @ZachWeinersmith I think people’s notes are often longer than the books, especially if you figure that he might be working out jokes/puns, which benefit from choosing the best from a big pool of options. You gotta remember that he wrote without a backspace key! But I think you’re right that 400 pages is hyperbole.
       
 (DIR) Post #Aipk6yrmwnhrQuEAka by dan131riley@federate.social
       2024-06-11T23:42:09Z
       
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       @ZachWeinersmith I'm reminded of a reprint excerpt of TS Eliot, possibly from "The Waste Land", that inverted text and notes