How would you interpret this sentence? Mr. Lincoln Barnes, my Mr. Lincoln. He means well. A second novel makes me “a novelist,” says he, and therefore duty-bound to meet my editor in New York. He can’t know how entirely it’s out of the question. He should invite me to dance with angels on the head of a pin, I’d sooner try, if I could do it from home. But my failure will mean conceding every battle. Beginning with my title, Where the Eagle Eats the Snake. “Wrong,” he pronounced yesterday on the telephone. “People hate snakes.” How would you interpret this sentence: But my failure will mean conceding every battle? What failure do you think did he refer to? Did he mean if he failed to dance with angels on the head of a pin, he would lose all the battles? Thanks! And It’s from The Lacuna by Kingsolver.