Fermenting John Ashbery

Dead Beat finishes off his tea (see A Study in John Ashbery), brings Hudson for a short stroll, then picks up the phone again.

"Do I revise much you ask?" he hears Mr A. enquiring, "Well, when I’ve finished writing I go over and make a few changes, but usually nothing very extensive: I either decide this is not worth bothering with, I’ll write something else; or I just make some minor revisions.Then I put it away and let it sort of ferment for a while, and take it out later, maybe make a few more changes then, but usually not very much.

Now ask me is it true I write all the time."

"Is it true you write all the time, John?"

"No I don’t, it’s not true. I try to set aside maybe one day a week when I’ll try to write something, and I don’t write for very long when I do write, or at any rate I write rapidly, usually."

"I've got to go now John. I have a novel I was thinking of rewriting."

"Is my work oblique, do I hear you say? Funny you should ask..."