I think it says something that I have never had an obscene letter. A young man once attempted one, but it was so totally illiterate and hopeless that it made me laugh.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The mail amazes me. I sometimes get these letters that are ten pages, and handwritten, from women pouring their hearts out and, for security reasons, I can only respond with a headshot and 'Dear so and so, be good. WM.' It never feels like enough.
I used to get so many letters from students about the ending of 'Pro Femina.' So I had a stamp made that said 'irony, irony, irony' to put on a postcard and mail it back.
If someone wrote it and it had a peculiar twist, I've read it.
I haven't ever found any great writing on that wonderful and often unappreciated art form, the insult.
I have met so many people who say they've got a book in them, but they've never written a word.
Every time I write something, I think, this is the most offensive thing I will ever write. But no. I always surprise myself.
A great deal of my mail comes from fans of the 'Oz' picture - fans of all ages. The scholarly, the curious, the disbelievers write and ask how? why? when? what for? did you fly? melt? scream? cackle? appear? disappear? produce? sky-write? deal with monkeys? etc., etc., etc.
It may be tripe, but it's my tripe - and I do urge other authors to resist encroachments on their brain-children and trust their own judgment rather than that of some zealous meddler with a diploma in creative punctuation who is just dying to get into the act.
I became a connoisseur of that nasty thud a manuscript makes when it comes through the letter box.
I get a lot of letters from prisoners. They say things you can't imagine.