[Untitled Letter]

[page 10] RICK SNEARY I think you are wise to set a subscription South Gate, Calif price. That way you may get back enough to cover @postags@. Paying postage always seems the worst part. After all "paper dosen't cost nuff'en" and the stencils are "all used anyway". But with stamps, you see 3¢ or 4¢ going out with each issue. @You@ policy of using the same amount of paper, no matter the number of copies has a flaw. The more copies the more postage. -An expense not balanced by the fewer stencils used. I suggest you follow the policy only @untell@ you fall into the cheapest mailing @bracked@ and then @stabelize@ at that size. Additional request for copies should be put on a stand-by @bases@, @untell@ new openings are formed. i.e. a waiting list. (( Actually our postage is pretty painless too ... the person who does the mailing doesn't pay for it so he doesn't feel each stamp ... and the person who pays for it doesn't see the stamps or the mailing .... )) Noodlewhip is asking for a fat lip. I'll hire Calvin W. "Biff" Dammon to give him one if he pulls any more of these @smart-alicie@ _Post_ or _Reporter_ like stunts of printing two letters that say just the reverse of the other, one after the other. Makes @eather@ Bob or @Im@ look like we were fools--and I hate for Bob to @feal@ bad. I wonder how many had to re-read that line in @Breens@ letter to believe that he actually said "in this anti-sexual culture". @Some one@ ought to tell the Advertising industry, magazine [page 11] publishers, and auto @manufactors@ that they have been making a mistake. The trouble is there is too much @emphases@ on sex and not enough on love. Well, Noodles (( Please sir, we havn't even been introduced. )) @cought@ my meaning it being hard to find the words to explain how you felt about love -- so he can't be all bad. Is the @hansom@ Frog Prince really revolted at the @necessety@ of kissing that big white human? Can't you just imagine two female toads talking. One says, "Did you let Oferlay kiss you?" And the other @wringles@ up her nose and says, "I should say not, @I't@ rather kiss a human". Lyn on phones is interesting and @amuseing@--but nothing I can comment on. I do hope he is planning to work for the FBI or CIA. It would seem a waste if he only worked at finding oil and uranium ore. Anyone know how many translations into English there are of Don Quixote? I just picked up a copy that looks to be a pirate editon of around 1901-1920, and no credits. Quite a bit different than a @Penquen@ editon I checked it against. As something of a J.D. Carr buff, I enjoyed Hulan's article on him. I was in agreement with nearly all Hulan's views, though I think the writing is more English than American. He also didn't mention that Carr's @charaters@, almost all from the @uper@-class, fall into rather stock grouping--though @there@ nature may be quite different. The stories are usually told as viewed by a young American. There are almost always two girls, one good one you @disslike@ at first, and one who seems @allright@ at first but who goes wrong before the end. His minor @charaters@ are delightful too. As is his @habbit@ of stopping the story giving you a lecture. I've just read the Eight of Swords, and learned about St. @Pall's@, @fortion@ telling cards, and the things you should not do in a good detective story (Carr having just violated all his rules). It is rather @supprising@ that no cult or fanclub has grown up about Carr--but I suppose this can be explained by no one wanting to picture themselves as fat old men. If a @Oh-Wee-Gee@ board told me that you were going to go to work for JPL, Steve, [page 12] I wouldn't pay it no-never-mind. But if you tell me that a @Oh- wee-gee@ board told you that you were going to work there, then I believe it. My old buddy Jim Wilson who has been in Reports (or something like that) for some time now @tell's@ me that nearly everyone up there is a little nuts. Actually it sounds like a great place to work. Not only is it an inside look at what we are shooting into space--but the people are less, @what ever@ it is that is wrong with those in the civilian weapon shops. They are not so worried about @sacurity@ as @defence@ plants, and they generally seem more interested in doing a job than just getting paid. Anyway I know about six Tech Writers, and Wilson is the only one that likes his job. The fantasy this time wasn't quite up to @standered@, @No@ enchanted towers or talking cats, or any @darry-due@. Though a story about the Easter @Rabbitt@ on Easter, and there isn't any Easter @Rabbitt@, who do the @rabbitts@ think brings the eggs?* No one wonders @were@ the @rabbitts@ get the eggs, but I bet the little @rabbitts@ do. Now do you see why I don't write @fantasy's@? My mind is always looking for a logical answer. Even the one I started years ago about a man being @curses@ with a dragon that had a Cockney accent didn't @develope@. I couldn't think of a way to get rid of it. It appears that no small amount of the charm and popularity of Tolkien's work is that it says something to nearly everyone, but rarely the same things. The result is that almost everything said about them is true. The question is how much of this is deliberate, and how much just @happen@. @Wheather@ J.R.R. was @delibertly@ writing a story about the fight between good and evil-- hanging many old myths and @legonds@ on it. Or @wheather@ that is the way a good story ended up. I tend to agree with Jinx more than the rest, as it @seem@ to me that the @charaters@ were representing personality @trates@. Though, like the rest, I put my own @tages@ on them. I'm sure I mentioned this before. The Hobbits seem the very model of a good middle-class Britisher. The elves are pretty much the picture of your Frenchman in English literature. And the dwarves are the same for the Germans. The @orks@ too sound like @saracens@ (@Though@ I find I picture them as looking like the guards of the evil witch in the Wizard of Oz -- the movie, that is) Well, I've gone on at great length to show dozens of points that make the Lord of the Ring seem to be a re-telling of the Third Crusade. (Strider as King Richard, of course.) Of course you @my@ object to thinking of @Elron@ as being the fat little king....? (oooh, I can't think what French kingdom it was, and I haven't any of my books here. Was it @Navare@, or @Burgandy@?) All this may only be because it @seamed@ so real to me, that I wanted it to mean more. (( You realize of course, that if we were to enforce the "Print the letters that come in on odd days" rule we would have to count from this letter ... 'twould be worth it. )) --------- * Which is like, who brings baby storks?