Were Raymond and Peter mostly Gordon and Polly?

In the 4-17-09 issue of The Week, the book page featured six "best books" chosen by author Jay McInerney (Bright Lights, Big City). One of his selections was Will You Please Be Quiet, Please, by Raymond Carver, about which he said ...

Carver’s first collection, with its pared-down, colloquial language and its working-class settings, almost single-handedly revivified realism, and the short story itself, when it appeared in 1976. It remains astonishingly fresh and powerful to this day. Like Hemingway, Carver stripped away the cobwebs and taught us a new way to see and hear the world around us.

That statement, with its references to pared-down language and stripped-away cobwebs, brought to mind an article I'd read about Raymond Carver's relationship with his editor, Gordon Lish. Gordon Lish, it seems, wielded an active and unhesitant red pen, and was wont to pare down Carver's original short-story manuscripts by anywhere from 30 to 70 percent. That kind of cobweb-stripping begs the question, Was Raymond Carver mostly Gordon Lish?

Sure, the story ideas and fully fleshed drafts were Carver's. But one can't help suspecting that the trademark "Carver" traits so lauded and applauded by literary critics and Raymond Carver fans—that pared-down language and those stripped-away cobwebs—were largely Lish's doing. Just look ...

Raymond wrote it like this:
I shrugged. "I'm the wrong person to ask. I didn't even know the man. I've only heard his name mentioned in passing. Carl. I wouldn't know. You'd have to know all the particulars. Not in my book it isn't, but who's to say? There're lots of different ways of behaving and showing affection. That way doesn't happen to be mine. But what you're saying, Herb, is that love is an absolute?"

Gordon changed it to this:
"I'm the wrong person to ask," I said. "I didn't even know the man. I've only heard his name mentioned in passing. I wouldn't know. You'd have to know all the particulars. But I think what you're saying is that love is an absolute."

Judge for yourself.

In a similar vein, many believe the creative force behind famed film director Peter Bogdanovich was his first wife, Polly Platt, who collaborated with him on his two masterpieces, The Last Picture Show (1971) and Paper Moon (1973). Their fruitful collaboration—along with Bogdanovich's cinematic triumphs—came to an abrupt halt after Peter moved on to the perceived greener pastures known as Cybill Shepherd. By 1975 he was writing and directing the likes of At Long Last Love, one of the worst films every made according to The Golden Turkey Awards, a 1980 book by film critic Michael Medved and his brother Harry. Seems like Peter just might have been mostly Polly.

There's a moral here which I'll let you define, because I now want to move on to this important ...

UPDATE

Furthering my 3-30-09 screed properly equating political lobbying with organized crime, I found this tidbit from The Washington Post quoted in the 4-24-09 issue of The Week:

Lobbyists spend $3 billion a year in Washington, D.C., and they get their money's worth. A University of Kansas study found that a single corporate tax break in 2004 enabled 800 companies to save a total of $100 billion.

Judge that for yourself, too (when you're done throwing up).

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