Dear Bill:

Martha may have told you some of this already, but I’ll go over it all anyway.

Stern called and wants to do a major story in Germany. They would be most interested if we can supply them with a picture of you and the book/box. I can get a copy off to you this week, and Martha mentioned you might be planning a shoot with Waterhouse soon. Let me know if you want to go to the extra lengths for Stern.

I think I mentioned, months ago, how much Penn Jilette (of Penn & Teller) loves the project. His article in one of the computer mags will appear next month. I can’t remember if I told you that Penn volunteered to do a live, unrehearsed reading of the story at one of the locations in December. His idea was to read the lines off a screen, to an audience, in real time. I like the idea, as it twists the origin of Agrippa even further. And if Penn makes “mistakes”, then the story mutates again.

1) – do you like that idea, and 2) do you think it would be interesting for some real low tech (or foreign sites where even a computer and modem may be hard to come by) to have a voice feed of Agrippa on Dec. 9th – just this voice coming out of speakers, no face, no screen. I kind of like the idea. Penn would do the reading straight – not as any kind of comedy.

Finally, though I’m a bit hesitant, I have a suggestion about one line of Agrippa. I ran it by Martha, and she said it was o.k. to bring up, though you may want to kick me. As I’ve scrolled through a dozen or so discs in the last week, on different machines, doing tests, the line towards the end where you say “There it was that I was marked out as a writer (of science fiction,) …” always jumps out at me, because it pegs you in a certain way. I may be dumb, or naive, but I simply consider books as good writing or bad, and I think you go way beyond what many people think of as “science fiction”. My suggestion would be “There it was that I was marked out as a writer,&nbsp’…,” People (readers, writers, reviewers) always try to peg art and writing into neat little genres, and the best is always pushing in different directions, beyond the genre.

I will be out with Dennis in L.I. tonight, if you want to talk about the Penn Jilette idea.

Kevin Begos