"THIS QUESTION OF DISCIPLINE": AN INTERVIEW WITH ANTHONY POWELL
Paul L. Gaston
O, How the Wheel Becomes It! is the 18th novel by the author of the 12-novel roman-fleuve, A Dance to the Music of Time. The following discussion has been edited from the transcript of a recent interview at the writer's home, "The Chantry," in Somerset, England.
PLG: Other writers have undertaken and completed ambitious projects. You, however, subjected your design to your publisher and your readers at recurring intervals—fully 12 times. Did you ever consider what you would do if you became dissatisfied with A Dance to the Music of Time or weary of it?
AP: I don't think that I ever quite made up my mind what I should do. After the war, I decided that I would embark on this long sequence. I didn't know how many volumes it would be, and I didn't know how long it would take. But I settled down to write this long sequence. When I reached the stage when I had to deal with the war years, I realized that I should need at least three volumes to write about the war. And working out how old I should be after I had written that, I decided I would finish the whole thing in another three volumes, which would make a neat 12. I wouldn't be all that young by then. Twelve is a convenient number. And I quite approve of discipline in all the arts. But what would have
