Letter to Vance Bourjaily
The serial as discipline, illustrated by Freud's rebuke to Theodor Reik — 'You want to be a big man? Piss in one spot' — and again as 'ten-second chess.' Mailer angles for a hunting trip to Bourjaily's and, knowing nothing of guns, asks what shotgun he should buy.
To the novelist Vance Bourjaily, Mailer makes the serial a lesson in concentration, retelling Freud’s rebuke to Theodor Reik — “Reik, you want to be a big man? Piss in one spot” — and again likening installment-writing to “ten-second chess,” where professionalism must back each hurried decision and “never before has it been quite so important to get a character out of a room with a minimum of sweat.” He half-invites himself on a hunting trip, with elaborate apologies, and — “I know nothing about them” — asks Bourjaily what shotgun he ought to buy. He signs off with news of his marriage to Beverly.