Hello James, Jim, Professor Frakes (whichever you prefer to be called)...

In addition to writing these Gravity notes that you've been receiving, I've been trudging through Ulysses for the first time, and as a kind of mental relief from programming & working on the novel I showed you several months ago, I've been reading "Star Trek: The Next Generation" books.

I just came across a passage from "The Eyes of the Beholders" that made me laugh. Data approaches William Riker to get his opinion about a novel that he's writing. It's clearly bad, but Riker doesn't want to hurt the android's feelings...

With a surge of honesty, Riker added, "But that kind of love scene... well, that's not really the style of thing I usually select for my own reading. I enjoy a more ... overtly masculine style of storytelling, I guess you'd say."

"Such as?"

"Well, Riverton is one of my favorites. And of course Hemingway. _A Farewell to Arms_ and _For Whom The Bell Tolls_ --- he was definately a master. Great stuff."

"I ... see," Data said. "Thank you, Commander. You have given me much to consider. Perhaps some rewriting..."

Riker clapped the android on the shoulder. "Keep at it, Data," he said in a hearty man-to-man voice. "All great authors learn the value of rewriting, I'm sure."

... this made me laugh. Also something Riker said in one of the episodes about some decision being "the height of hubris" made me laugh, because it reminded me of the Hemingway class I took with you.

Aside from your famous son (it must be interesting having some forty books written with him in it, each with lines like "The tall man, whose handsome features were enhanced, not obscured, by the beard he wore, turned at the hail."), I'd like to tell you why you're on my Gravity list.

I know you're quite busy. I know a note a day is too much to ask for many readers. About fifteen of the original forty-four people have requested that they be taken off the list. I expected this kind of shake-out to occur.

These notes are intended to address many different areas, writing and
criticism among them. I'm trying to appeal to a diverse audience, and while on the surface, this is a discussion about a technological innovation, I'm trying to make it more than that. People like Norman Girardot, Steve Goldman, Bob Barnes, Barbara Frankel, Joe Lucia, Francis Harvey, and several others in different areas of the world have responded in ways that have directed the flow of the discussion, as I myself don't have a set agenda.

It's in the interaction, however minimal or peripheral... a single quote from someone, or comment, contributes. I am collecting all responses & these notes together into a book, pending permission from all involved.

I'd love it if you at least skimmed _some_ of these notes, and if something brought to mind something that had nothing to do with the topic, respond in any way. That's why I'm writing to as wide an audience as I am, not so that I can be read, but so that the train of my thought might be skillfully lead toward more enlightened aims.

If you'd like to be taken off the list, I'll certainly understand...

Sincerely,
Tim