Onions, or the Joys of Writing a Treatise

From time to time during the five years I have worked with Louis Loss on what will be a 12-volume work on Securities Regulation, I have been asked what treatise writing is like. Normally the question is posed with the unspoken assumption that it must be a little like a serious case of leprosy or perhaps a violation of the 13th Amendment. For example: "Is it horribly depressing?" Or: "How many years do you think it will take?" Then there is a somewhat more cynical unspoken assumption that occasionally can be perceived: "Don't you miss theoretical writing?" Or most splendid of all: "Don't you look forward to writing law review articles again?"