Early exchange, from the heady formative
days of the Journal

From: Field Marshal Fibes

To: Admiral Benbow
Subject: Content questions

They tell me it's a Thursday, February 08, 2007. So they say. (Biting corner of lip) So they say.

________________________

Dear Sea Salt o' the Earth:

***Just respond as tide allows; I send now to initiate your window of opportunity.***

Excellent, excellent. Received your counterflurry, smiling at increasingly agitated tenor. I used to make that muscle in [Professor] B...'s neck twitch. Like Gomer Pyle with Sgt. Carter. The temp page sounds good. Your instincts--all
of them--are unerring--and ever if they erred, what blighter'd know it?

--I AM INDEED somewhat outrageously loquacious, aren't I? I've no idea where I get it from; perhaps from Mother, whom from fair distance you can hear cursing the walls in the deep of evening.

1. Your "Layout" Page omits several items I received from you or someone a helluva lot like you. Don't you mean to include them as Departments? In
Issue 1, or later? What about Allegro Con Moto? The two enigmatic poems
in Pote's Korner? Film Flam, Academy of Anthroopop'y? You sent headings & diagrams for these. And there's Books in Review: Egad!, which I found quite pleasurable, like listening to Art Bell on AM radio talking up the notions of alien invaders, the hollow earth etc. What are your plans for Mr. [Charles] Fort?

2. What's your experience or knowledge about copyright fair use on the Sappy Scholarship journal abstracts? I'm concerned re entire abstracts (and newspaper blurbs). We could always resort to quoting key passages, but of course these muddyduds speak best for themselves. . . I still have copyright to catch up on, but you seem to have vast oceans of experience on tap. Also to consider is that we're doing a serious realm-hop here, from our private circles to the ENTIRE WORLD LOOKING. Sappy Scholarship people are going to feel (however erroneously) that they & their work are being held up to global ridicule. They and their institutions and publishers will, we may predict, be furious and seek to lash out if & when they find out. If we are vulnerable (as on copyright issues), they'll drag us out of the car and pulverize us and haul our carcasses through the streets. Careers will be sullied, futures bleak't--not necessarily those of our subjects. How much is your righteous animus worth to you?

3. Domain choice is different from that we initially contemplated. Your preference for the functional journal site? (provincialthought.com, provthought.com, jpthought.com)

4. The attached Hex Libris: Efforts at revising original list gone radical. Result: What I hope is entertaining, some amusing, some funny, some interesting or merely weird, hope not boring. We can't do BORING, even for the sake of art. Anathema is a lethal indulgence, like swilling turpentine. This absolutely requires your evaluation to decide if it misses the mark as a whole, or is suitable with some culling, or whatall. I can't countenance the old list unchanged. But THIS? This--this sulphurous goop I have ladled onto the screen.... I just can't say if it "meets JPT's editorial needs at this time." I really have no sense about the list now; maybe I'm in deep denial. Might have sailed too far over the top. So pick out a few Percy Sledge minutes this/next month, kick yourself back with a plate of locust puffs & a frog frappe, and see wot u c.

In Full Contemplation of the Sad & Bizarre Circumstances Inflicted Upon Human Minds and Bodies--

The Mess in Which We Muck, the Impossible Intentions and Brief Futile Flappings of Our Lips & Limbs

As a Turbulent Universe Careens Along Unknowable Courses, Making... Unmaking. . .

The Right Field Marshal Fibes

2/10/07

Dear Marshie,

Re: below queries:

Am back from Wellington, where the earth did not move for me, thank Allah, and all went well in trolling the dismal archives of Alexander Turnbull in search of orts of factoids appertaining to one Maurice Gee, scribe and goodfella. Martha had a good time gallivanting in Dunedin whilst I was thither.

1. Yes, ALL these depts should be included if possible. I did not have a complete list in hand, thus leaving out all the stuff here in Pointo Numero Uno.

2. Frankly I don't know or care a lot about copyright, which I think is being broken down by Steve Jobs et al. right now in re the Web, etc. I interpret "fair use" as liberally as humanly possible, believing that what I do with stuff is CLEARLY VISBIBLE AS NONPLAGIARISM. Whatever else it is, it ain't just "stealing." I also go by the rule that I am WAY below anybody's radar (or sonar) even if I flaunt a lot of outrageous crap in cyberspace. Given at least 1 zillion loony bloggers and monomaniacs out there, who has time to harrass and intimidate me (and by extension, thee)?

3. I'd choose provincialthought.com, just to drive home the operative title phrase. If you think another is better for esoteric technoreasons, feel free--

4. Will meditate on Hex Libris etc. and be back to you in a flash --Ish.

Here's a thought: can we get Vol One Numb One out for April 1, 2007? Obvious reasons. Or if we can't, let's post-date it thus. Then I suggest Issue Two = August 15, 2007 (The Ides of August) and Issue Three = November 5, 2007 (Guy Fawkes Day). Howzat?

Back to my post as soon as yon black brigantine clears the horizon with its dastardly crew of doped-up Lascars. Arrrrghgh!

On duty somewhere in the Great Southern Oceane Sea,