Letters from the Inside, Michael Swango, #23

Dear KK---

Just a relatively brief note today to accompany a few items I wanted to send to you. I anticipate receiving a letter from you later this week, so I'm sure a long letter to you will be in order over the weekend! Writing to you, opening up, and learning and knowing about you is somewhat addicting, KK, but I'm sure you've heard that before! I'll elaborate on all this later...

Ran across this brief preview of tonight's season V finale of "LOST". Utterly fascinating. "LOST" is one of the few shows on television which an audience and critics actually agree, I can't help but connect in my mind my previous letter re: "What Comes Next?" / Scheherazade, AND the complex machinations of "LOST". If either you or I were kidnapped by an evil King or Queen and forced to tell a story every night with a cliff hanger, or face execution: I have no doubt that we would simply begin telling the tale of "LOST"--of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, of the island, of the fantastic flashbacks, of the Dharma Initiative, of the Others, ad infinitum...

Like Scheherazade, KK, I'm sure the King would end up making you the Queen. You, of course, would insist on a firm contract outlining duties, benefits, etc!

Most curious to talk & write about your comments & thoughts on that letter and several other "deeper" letters written after. Hope you have no fears about letting me inside you as well. After all, if someone (you) can't share with someone here (me), who can they?

Must thank you again for that brilliant & well-written article on J.G. Ballard from Salon.com. [Along with DailyBeast.com & a few others, that seems to be one of the go to websites.] Unfortunately, such well though out literary criticism is becoming increasingly rare. Thanks again.

[Yes, dear, KK--I am one of the nerds!?? :-) who reads book reviews not just for the info but for the writing itself. But I suspect you do as well.]

By the way, the article provides a roadmap for discovering the best of Ballard's often disturbing & bizarre, but always entertaining, massive volume of work: His three novels in the 60s, and four in the 70s.

In an article which I believe was reprinted from your NY Times, I ran across this brilliant little poem by Carol Ann Duffy, the woman recently named the Poet Laureate of the UK. It imagines the plight of Mrs. Rip Van Winkle... I'm not really a poetry person, but like with music, there is always something unique, original, or emotionally powerful to discover... I know I have some others which I will send as time permits.

You can tell so much about men & women by what makes them well up inside with joy or sadness---what moves them---deeply and intensely. i.e.--that version of "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley...

Also per some of our recent conversations, a recent article on some interesting psychological experiments on good & evil & morality & "doing the right thing". It beings with those well-known experiments by Stanley Milgram in the 1960s.

Another set of almost equally famous or infamous experiments which I'm sure you will want to talk about are the "Stanford Prison Experiments" conducted in the 1970s by a man named Zambardo [sp? odd name that begins with "Z".] You can google them & get all the actual details--very enlightening. Will discuss further if you wish.

OMG!* As I'm needing to finish this letter---just received two letters from you, including what looks to be a long article on neuroscientific research experiments! [another one of our Vulcan mind melds...] and just glancing through, you received my letter on "What Happens Next?, Stephen King, Scheherazade & coping with incarceration.

Definitely a more personal letter, also taking more time this weekend in response ++ Ummm...and hopefully many more like that from you as well...

For now this has to go now. Be safe, enjoy "LOST"--I'll be thinking about you as I watch it... [OMG, KK--do you believe that?] Take care,

Yours,

Michael
*In my next letter, "Gossip Girl", "90210" & the upcoming "Melrose Place."
***
To KK from Michael:

Poem
Mrs Rip Van Winkle
CAROL ANN DUFFY
Published: May 1, 2009


I sank like a stone

Into the still, deep waters

of late middle age,

Aching from head to foot.

I took up food

And gave up exercise.

It did me good.

And while he slept,

I found some hobbies

for myself.

Painting. Seeing the sights

I’d always dreamed about:

The Leaning Tower.

The Pyramids.

The Taj Mahal.

I made a little watercolour

of them all.

But what was best,

What hands-down beat

the rest,

Was saying a none-too-fond

farewell to sex.

Until the day

I came home with this

drawing of Niagara

And he was sitting up in bed

rattling Viagra.