Re: Dear author

Malcolm Lawrence (malcolm@wolfenet.com)
Mon, 13 Apr 1998 00:54:22 -0700

Sundeep Dougal wrote (so much that I can't believe one measly url and a
sentence or two from moi could provoke such a vigorous response from Brother
Sunny (who's got to be good lookin' cause he's so hard to see)):

> Malcs, hi!

Howdy backatcha Sunny! Long time no post. Seems like it's always me who wakes
you up. Sorry. :)

> Oh, I dunno. As a concept, I understand and identify with Holden's wish to
> be a terrific _friend_ of the authors of books one likes and to have the
> liberty of calling them up whenever one felt like it, but I don't think
> Holden would only want to discuss the books he liked with the authors who
> wrote them. Knowing him, he just might, but I guess he would want to be a
> friend, not in a "oh-y'know-I-was-talking-to-good-ol' Jerry-about-what-
> he-thought-about-Hinduism-and-all-and-man-he-doesn't-know-a-thing" way, but
> probably in that naivete that assumes that anybody who's capable of moving
> one with a captivating yarn would also turn out to be some sort of a
> soulmate...

Your points are well taken. I actually hadn't even formed my thoughts about
such a concept when I passed the url along to the list. But the points you
bring up keep reminding me of what I'm trying to do with my Babel website. I
haven't put up the mailing list yet because I'm still working on getting more
traffic as well as more cash to pay for the installation, upkeep and archival
of it, but once it's up I envision it being a list where subscribers can freely
talk about any and all content within the Babel pages in whichever language
they choose (I.E. if Filipinos wish to discuss the Filipino content in Tagalog,
that's fine) as well as whichever contributors have pieces on the site can feel
free to subscribe to the list as well, so should there be a discussion that
really gets deep and provokes a lot of chat from other list members, they can
drop in a post or two or even be a regular contributor to the list. Just
another way to form a community, I guess.

Methinks that since this medium is still pretty new and sexy we have a tendency
to think twice about the "propriety" of such things as actually being able to
chat with JDS simply because it was impossible before. Terence McKenna is on
the Novelty mailing list and Roger McGuinn is on the Bob Dylan mailing list.
And even though their respective presences are known on the lists just because
they've posted, there's probably a lot more respect given to their email
addresses than you'd think (I can't say for sure, though, obviously...in fact,
by simply writing that thought I have half a mind to write them and ask them
about it. LOL) I mean, I'd love to ask them a question or two directly, but I'd
make damn sure I had a question that I knew wouldn't waste their time and would
be a question that only they could answer. I dunno. In the words of Jimmie Dale
Gilmore, it's a braver, newer world.

Malcs