Magellan's Log: Letters, 2003

Semaphore Signals:
Messages from Readers
Jan. 1, 2003 - Dec. 31, 2003

You too can write to us:
magellan@texaschapbookpress.com

Dear Magellan,
I was very near despair with your country when I stumbled on "Magellan's Log" while leafing through the internet looking for Herman Kahn. To know that there are other Good Texans apart from Larry McMurtry and Molly Ivins relieves my deep trauma.

I am a Canadian writer so old I remember the rise of Adolph Hitler and the broadcasts of Doc Brinkley from Del Rio, Texas.

I think your lovely magazine will keep me relatively sane during the initial phases of Armageddon.

Thank you.
John David Hamilton

Dear Magellan,
With reference to your question about the linearity of time, one of the determinants of the velocity of light is the permittivity of space. 1) What determines this value of permittivity and 2) if the permittivity of space were to change, would not the velocity of light also change and, if so, how would this affect time?
Ron Nott

Ed. Note: After scouring our archives, we were unable to determine which article Mr. Nott was referring to. We like his letter so much we're printing it anyway.

Dear Magellan,
Enjoyed your little list of turn-of-the-millennium Mystery Writers. You didn't pull any punches. I like Cornwell's first book (which may have been written by her first husband I believe). I'll keep an eye out for Stan Cutler.
Christopher Seaman

Dear Magellan,
[Re: Is It Dictatorship Yet?] Please note that the photo of a young 'El Presidente' was taken when 'El Presidente' was a cheerleader at Yale. Yes, and barely a C student. The issue of 'cheerleader' is an important one. Because characteristically in a 'dictatorship' the dictator is the one that calls the shots. Cheerleaders don't call the shots or the plays - they simple manage support. These are simply 'fronts' for the team. Who is the dictator that is running the show as the US marches toward world domination?
Greg Coelho

Dear Magellan,
[Re: Johnny Got His What?] I never read the book but I did see the movie "Johnny Got His Gun" in the 1970s; perhaps it is a "disaster" in comparison to the book (as many movies are), but it surely affected me. To this day, I ask myself the question: is this war going to be worth a "Johnny"? Most times, the answer is "NO" but there are times that the answer is, sadly, yes. As the reviewer
says, the timing of the book's publishing was unfortunate, because it came up against a war against Hitler.
The other issue is the question of "propaganda." Survivors of war, whether physically injured or not, have varying opinions on their experience. However, many of those injured are not bitter about their experiences. Example: the Platoon Sergeant, father of two young children, interviewed on TV yesterday, who lost a leg to a mine in Afghanistan. What he misses most is not being with his soldiers, doing his job.
John Marovich.

Dear Magellan,
[Re: The Walking Wounded] Firearm injuries result in $800 million in hospital charges annually. The cost of treating firearm related injuries in hospital charges alone is more than $800 million a year, according to a study published today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The study, conducted by researchers from Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, found that 29% of firearm victims have no health insurance to pay for their care, the financial burden of which falls largely on the shoulders of urban teaching hospitals. The average length of stay for patients with firearm-related injuries was six days, with an estimated total of 111,506 hospital days for firearm assault cases and 214,372 hospital days for all firearm-related cases. The average hospital charge for an assault related firearm case was $23,904, while the average charge associated with self-inflicted injury was $30,201. In 1997, gunshots resulted in 32,436 fatalities and over 6,400 nonfatal injuries requiring treatment in U.S. hospital emergency departments.
David Cerruti

Dear Magellan,
[Re: Johnny Got His What?] Per the reference to the civil war song "Johnny comes Marching home" :
That civil war song was actually based on lyrics and melody from an older Irish song "Johnny we hardly knew ye". The lyrics from the Irish song probably more closely relate to the war veteran's condition as it speaks of armless and legless war victims. It also mentions his getting his gun.
A few lines from "Johnny we hardly knew ye" are: (with bold text hi-lighting:

While goin' the road to sweet Athy, hurroo, hurroo
While goin' the road to sweet Athy, hurroo, hurroo
While goin' the road to sweet Athy,
A stick in me hand and a drop in me eye,
A doleful damsel I heard cry,
Johnny I hardly knew ye.

With your drums and guns and drums and guns, hurroo, hurroo
With your drums and guns and drums and guns, hurroo, hurroo
With your drums and guns and drums and guns,
The enemy nearly slew ye
Oh my darling dear, Ye look so queer
Johnny I hardly knew ye.

Where are your eyes that were so mild, hurroo, hurroo
Where are your eyes that were so mild, hurroo, hurroo
Where are your eyes that were so mild,
When my heart you so beguiled
Why did ye run from me and the child
Oh Johnny, I hardly knew ye

Where are your legs that used to run, hurroo, hurroo
Where are your legs that used to run, hurroo, hurroo
Where are your legs that used to run,
When you went for to carry a gun
Indeed your dancing days are done
Oh Johnny, I hardly knew ye

I'm happy for to see ye home, hurroo, hurroo
I'm happy for to see ye home, hurroo, hurroo
I'm happy for to see ye home,
All from the island of Sulloon;
So low in flesh, so high in bone
Oh Johnny I hardly knew ye

Ye haven't an arm, ye haven't a leg, hurroo, hurroo
Ye haven't an arm, ye haven't a leg, hurroo, hurroo
Ye haven't an arm, ye haven't a leg,
Ye're an armless, boneless, chickenless egg
Ye'll have to put with a bowl out to beg
Oh Johnny I hardly knew ye

They're rolling out the guns again, hurroo, hurroo
They're rolling out the guns again, hurroo, hurroo
They're rolling out the guns again,
But they never will take our sons again
No they never will take our sons again
Johnny I'm swearing to ye

Robert Towsley

Dear Magellan,
Great work you guys are doing!
First, I've added a link from the site that I edit, Notes in a Bottle (www.notesinbottle.com, in case my hyperlink doesn't make it through your browser).
I also thought you might be interested to see how we're kindred spirits not only in terms of content and attitude, but even in our approach to exposition structure. Notes in a Bottle uses a modular approach where the components work like "prose Tinkertoys," not only staying on the site forever, but also capable of being combined and recombined into any number of new forms--as a number of examples in the Recombination Lab illustrate.
The site also demonstrates how various different "virtual magazines" can give their own special views of the core material, each tailored to its own particular set of reader tastes and interests, in kind of a harbinger of the way I see electronic publishing unfolding in the future.
Hope you enjoy it--and again, I really enjoy what you guys are doing!
Regards,
Bob Winter

Dear Magellan,
Doc, you offer no cure. How can that be?
How too can it be that all this calamity had its origin in 2000? Did it not have its roots in the 90's when all this incredible greed came to flower? When the meaning of "is" depended on one's personal needs at the moment?
What was it about the Pilgrims, et.al. that nourished hope for 3 centuries? What is missing now?
Doc, The Cure??!!
J.T. Reiner.

Dear Magellan,
[Re the Supplementary Canon] Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience.
Maureen Rioran.

Ed. Note: Of course. And thanks.

Dear Magellan,
You seem to have forgotten Albert Camus. Maybe it was intentional. He certainly belongs on the list, and as he is European, has a penis, and is a famous philospher, he probably belongs on the left list.
Not-very-upset University of Chicago student, product of "The Canon".

Ed. Note: Thnx for the reminder. The omission is fixed.

Dear Magellan,
In Wilkie Collins book The Moonstone, there is a character who
interprets everything around him through his readings of Robinson
Crusoe. I like to use The Godfather parts I and II.
Bush is now like Michael towards the end of part II when he's trying to
have Hyman Roth murdered. Michael says,"If history has taught us
anything, it's that you can kill anybody." Later on (I can't remember
which character) says to Michael, "You've won, do you have to kill
everybody?" And of course, Michael/Bush does.
Mark Gross.
Austin

Dear Magellan,
Last Sunday I read to my congregation some of the new "lyrics" which you have applied to the most sacred music in the world [The Texas Zen Hymnbook]. Of course my point was to show the members of my flock just how far this nation has sunk on its downward path into disrespect for the very word of God. I want to thank you for your utter depravity because the collection we took up following that sermon was the largest we've had since that last time I preached against homosexual lesbian transvestites.
Keep up the Devil's work. You're giving me lots of good material.
Thomas K. Legrande, Jr.

Dear Magellan,
Magellan's Log is brilliant. We are adding it to our links page; hope you'll do the same for KtB.
Jeff Sharlet.
www.KillingTheBuddha.com

Dear Reppy Duart,
I was pleased to discover your writing on Aldous Huxley's Island within the Magellan's Log [Island Revisited]. In particular to be reminded to Huxley's interest in landscape painting as a tool for wandering towards the inner spiritual source of light.

wpeC.jpg (7938 bytes) I am writing to ask if you remember Huxley writing an essay upon this subject ... ? Was it in a collection of his essays ...? Perhaps .. "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" ...?

I ask for your help ... my memory has become a misty landscape in itself.

And to write to thank you for your well-shared experience of Island and Huxley. I had occasion, in early 1964 to be invited to visit with Huxley in the company of a friend who was then engaged in experimenting with Aldus upon LSD voyages. Alas ... I was too shy to accompany them.

I send a recent painting of mine I titled " Beyond the Village" and also ... my best blessings ...
Richard Bohn.

Ed. Note: Our memory grows misty also. The reading of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is alas too many yesterday's in the past.

Dear Magellan,
A rather insightful piece on the difficulties of understanding another culture [We, All the People], and derived from the benefit of actual experience to boot. Something we as a nation could use more of.

Unfortunate to end it with the same misdirected rage you chronicle in someone else. You display a similar intolerance to what you observed. How little we learn, it seems.

To disagree, even vehemently, with someone's position is quite understandable, and in this country permissible. To launch such an unsupported broadside rather belies your apparent thoughtfulness.
Thoughtfully,
Jason.

Dear Magellan,
This book [Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun] is an integral part of creating a consciousness for peace. It is not about any particular war but any war.
Len Lempa.

Dear Magellan,
Per the reference [Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun] to the civil war song "Johnny comes Marching home" :

That civil war song was actually based on lyrics and melody from an older Irish song "Johnny we hardly knew ye". The lyrics from the Irish song probably more closely relate to the war veteran's condition as it speaks of armless and legless war victims. It also mentions his getting his gun.

A few lines from "Johnny we hardly knew ye" are: (with bold text hi-lighting

Robert W. Townsley.

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