Messrs. Mailer and Vonnegut were actively involved in raising funds for the

forthcoming New York conference of PEN--the international society of poets, essayists, editors, and novelists--and they spend here a surprisingly (given past antagonisms) good-natured hour discussing writers, oppressive societies, and the world at large. NM: "... writers of one country and writers of another country tend to have more natural communion than governments because we grow up and read foreign writers. If we have an affection for Russia it's because we read Russian novelists of the 19th century." ... KV: "[I want to] destroy the will of the United States Army to fight, and I would certainly like to do that with every army." WFB: "Oh, it's antecedent to your wanting to emasculate our army that you would have previously succeeded in emasculating other people's armies, is that the idea?" KV: "Sure, anybody's army that I can put out of business." WFB: "That sounds better." NM: "Mr. Vonnegut is famous for his sense of hyperbole."