Letters from the Inside, Michael Swango, #27

Dear KK,

Hi sunshine! Two letters from you with multiple items of interest--one letter wonderfully long--and not nearly enough time today to discussing and answer everything as I want. Written three days apart, but arrived almost the same time--go figure... So-let me make a start now, and I promise to address all the additional questions over the weekend. So expect a long letter a few days after this one...

First of all, thank you for the truly fascinating [in that "nerdy", sci-fi way" you so eloquently described :-)!] Wikipedia entry on FLASH FORWARD. I mean, OMG, KK! Sawyer actually delves into the complexities of quantum mechanics and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in trying go explain the remarkable events that occur.

Two sentences in the book review/analysis really caught my eye:

-"Oddly, no recording devices anywhere in the world functioned in the present during the event."

-"Those who kill themselves over their dismal prospects are, by their very acts, changing the future they dread."

KK--perhaps Mr. Sawyer can write a companion book explaining ALL of the Time Travel ramifications these past two seasons of "LOST". :-)

This is definitely a book I must read. Come my birthday in October, I may ask you for this book plus either Wetlands or The Kindly Ones, if either is out in paperback by then!

The pages concerning the book's transformation/adaption to a TV series was just as enlightening. Sounds like the network is fully committed to the project. Plus I love what Sawyer says about adaptation to film vs. TV. With film you have to begin cutting away material, but with a TV series you "need to start adding and expanding". Music to our ears, KK.

Plus it mentions Sawyer's other novels, including a trilogy [#1 WAKE] about the worldwide web gaining consciousness. That sounds a lot like the seminal event in the whole "Terminator" mythos--which the Defense Computer system "Skynet" becomes self-aware" and triggers nuclear Armageddon. Let me stop before I get too into the science-fiction weeds...

I will be watching for any additional info. through the summer on "FLASH FORWARD". And I know you will keep me informed with your vastly more data!

That's why I love writing to you and learning about you and exploring you--your curiosity is unending! Few people would even bother to look up Euler's Identity, the equation that links what some number theorists call the five most important numbers/mathematical quantities: e [pi] I 1 0

One of those theorists is Edwin Burger-- a youngish professor at Williams College. I am currently taking a tele-course on Number Theory (12 weeks) taught by him. Very interesting and provocative. My math background helps, but it was not required to understand the course. This is a longish answer [with those details I know you love!] to answer your question whether I take classes. Yes, I do. Some are average, but some are simply exceptional. For instance--an in-depth 24 week course on the Civil War, taught by the outstanding Civil War scholar ?___________ Gallagher from Virginia. Uh oh, I think I hear a slight yawn, so let me move on...

By the way,I think the Simpsons stamps are great. I do notice such things. And you have exquisite taste in those vintage cards you occasionally use for short notes. Exhibit A: Richard Prince's "Man-Crazy Nurse"--creepy but brilliantly painted.

Speaking of postcards: I, my dear, you do go on that cruise ship to Alaska--do send me postcards from Seattle, Vancouver, Juneau or any other ports of call [or the ship's giftshop]--like Cate Blanchett did for Benjamin Button. You will be thought of on that stunningly beautiful cruise, if you go.

Can't end the week without commenting on your photos. I know that everyone says all brides are beautiful; after all, there is an entire industry devoted to making that so. You are at the same time very beautiful and very sexy in that photo. You say you're thinner now? Everything looks just fine on your wedding day...and sooo utterly proper and professional on your business card, as it should be.

Hope this doesn't embarrass you but.... Actually even if it does oh well! Honesty and openness sometimes have that result. But you are a lovely and intelligent woman, KK. I will have much more to say on this--more private and probing if you will allow me in the weeks & months to come... In both that slightly out-of-focus photo (with your lovely eyes) and the wedding photo-you exude a smoldering sexuality & sensuality just below the surface...covert, not overt, which is actually even more sensual and attractive. It's tin the eyes an the Mona Lisa smile...AND by the you are are anything but "pretty average."

KK, I've barely scratched the surface of your letter--including your encapsulated, fascinating at times tragic, life story. The "tip of the iceberg" you said--a phrase I could use myself in describing my life--and in how much I know about you--and how much below the surface and inside you I want to know so much better. Must mail this, but suffice it to say that the last, the very last thing you are is another whiny woman with a bad childhood. Nothing could be further from the truth... Much more to say--talk to you again very soon.

Be well, be safe, KK. I'll be thinking of you often.

Yours,
Michael

P.S. Column by Nicholas Kristof sent to me by a doctor friend. I saw this travesty up close and personal in Africa, especially at Mpilo Hospital in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe & Lusaka Teaching Hospital in Zambia--where all the true disaster ended up.

HIV/AIDS, and this, I feel very strongly about. More to say in future letters.

[Ed.: There is some sort of a brown liquidy stain on this letter. Coffee?]