There is an important lesson tucked away in all of this, but you probably wouldn't understand it even if I made it explicit, which I won't.

Dear Mr. Savage,

Happy belated Thanksgiving. I trust that you survived the holiday with your neck and giblets intact.

I am indeed feeling much better now, thank you. And thank you also for your kind words regarding my recent promotion to third degree.

It's strange... I don't really feel any different. It's something that never fails to surprise me... you reach a significant milestone in your life -- graduating from college, or getting engaged, or moving to a new state, or promoting to a higher rank -- and you're still you. The genuine changes that are associated with those milestones are significant, but they're usually so drawn out that you don't notice them.

In any event, the test itself was not as difficult as I anticipated. The tests rarely are. The federation only allows people to test when they are genuinely ready, so in many regards the tests are something of a formality. My instructor's take on testing is that you should already be operating at the rank you are aspiring to before you are allowed to test. It is a useful philosophy, though the comfort it offers seems to falter a bit when you are standing in front of the testing board, which is comprised largely of masters, head masters and grand masters who have been teaching martial arts longer than you've been alive.

Truthfully, the hardest part of the test was probably sitting cross-legged for three and a half hours on the mats while the red belts who were promoting to first degree went through their test. By the time my group was up I was quite thoroughly stiff, sore and cooled down. Thankfully, the worst part of my sickness didn't hit me until the next day (just in time for the drive home from Wisconsin to Georgia).

Enough about that though -- E-mail recipients constitute a captive audience, and to devote more than three paragraphs to my own trials and triumphs would be both rude and gratuitous (I strive to restrict myself to either rude *or* gratuitous in a single sitting).

I am quite glad to hear that you don't take exception to inordinately long delays between correspondence. I have been thoroughly enjoying our dialogue, and it is pleasant to not feel unduly rushed. The fact that the Internet makes it possible to connect with anyone, rapidly, efficiently and effortlessly is wonderful. The fact that so many people have come to expect to be constantly connected with everyone else is intrusive and irritating. I have friends who send me four or five e-mails a day... needless to say, my responses are, by necessity, brief.

The long and the short of all of this is that I appreciate the fact that you allow me to take my time, and I encourage you to do the same. Feel free to write at your leisure and convenience.

Your description of the impact of technology on literature (particularly horror literature) was quite interesting. Any thoughts on how the Internet and the age of instant communication will continue to change things? It seems to me that there are several factors that will come in to play. The first is, of course, the instant gratification that people have become so accustomed to on the 'net. If TV cut our attention spans in half, the Internet seems likely to quarter them all over again. I would think that appealing to today's audience would require a continuous escalation of speed and shock... and I begin to wonder if there comes a point where the written word is simply incapable of providing the desired level of stimulus.

Just as significantly, it seems that the Internet may be "lowering the bar" in some regards, both by making the dissemination of writing cheaper and easier (running unequivocal for example costs me a grand total of 30 dollars a year... and that is actually only used for the image hosting. Running it as a text-only site would be free), and by encouraging a general looseness or even clumsiness of style and structure. The new generation is growing up on e-mail and instant messages, where the beauty of the carefully constructed phrase is supplanted by the empty efficiency of "a/s/l" and by smiley faces and "rotflmao."

So it seems that we may well end up with a body of readers who are exceptionally difficult to please, and a body of writers whose skills have largely degenerated. It doesn't seem like a very good time for the literary genre.

Ah. Speaking of literary endeavors, I must compliment you on the following phrase: "Deal with those cowards who look down their noses at your taste with pity, which is the most self-congratulatory form of contempt." If you were to put it on a bumper sticker, I would indeed purchase it.

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You are, of course perfectly correct in taking issue with the absolutism embodied in my statements about innocent victims... it would be fallacious of me to claim that no one is ever wholly or significantly innocent. I have a hard time passing judgment on people whose only mistake was to be working in the wrong building when the bomb went off or the airplane crashed. My statements are actually more of a response to public opinion, which seems to hold the opposite stance as true: every victim is innocent.

So, while I cannot deny the innocence and lack of culpability of the victims of the sniper or the World Trade Center attacks, I can (and do) deny the statistical significance of their innocence. I could even go so far as to claim that these two events actually highlight the relative scarcity of innocent victims in our society -- these events are, in part, newsworthy by virtue of the fact that the victims were, for once, not responsible.

Or, as my philosophy professor once said, "that's not a counter-argument. That's one of my premises!"

As far as karma... Although I do generally believe in it, I tend to avoid bringing it up when discussing the causes of victimization. Not only is it an impossible concept to prove, it also tends to make people very angry in this particular context. Folks seem to get riled up enough when I point out that wandering through a bad neighborhood at night while drunk is reprehensibly stupid; were I to suggest that anyone who is assaulted either wanted or deserved it on some level, I fear I might be lynched.

Finally, lest I be misunderstood, I should point out again that none of this means that I feel someone who is victimized *deserves* it, nor do I feel that the victimizer is ever justified. My stance on the matter could actually be summarized by stating that I acknowledge that in an ideal world, everyone should be able to do as they please, without fear of someone else violating their person or possessions. However, it behooves us all to acknowledge that this is not an ideal world, and act accordingly in order to preserve our safety.

Moving on to an entirely different subject, you may be entertained by the following tidbit of synchronicity. Many months ago, I lent out a fair number of books to a friend of mine. Most of these dealt with chaos magic. Some were treasured favorites, others were either texts that I had only skimmed over or had not gotten around to reading yet. My friend returned these to me several days ago. As I looked at the bag full of books, I was struck by a niggling suspicion regarding one of them. Doubtful, but delighted at the unlikelihood of the possibility, I dug through the bag until I found what I was looking for: a small book (really almost a pamphlet, stapled together rather than bound), titled "An Introduction to Chaos Magick" by Adrian Savage.

It was given to me by my fianc� several years ago, and to the best of my knowledge, I haven't yet read it. If I recall correctly, it was purchased at Hand of Glory -- an occult bookstore in Milwaukee.

It's not that much of a coincidence, I know... still, I find the timing of all of this rather remarkable. I'll have to let you know what I think after I've read through it.

If you have the details, I would be curious to know how big of a print run the book enjoyed. As I said, the coincidence is perhaps not all that remarkable, but I find it wonderfully curious nonetheless. It reinforces my general belief that there is indeed some sort of underlying glue that holds everything together. Perhaps there isn't much of a structure, but it seems that there are connections.

And with that I must take my leave; I've been meaning to update unequivocal for quite some time now, and this seems as good of an evening as any. I will indeed be posting our correspondence online... if, after reading it over, you wish to see anything added, omitted or altered, please let me know. Honesty takes a second place to artifice over at unequivocal, and if you want to see anything reworded or otherwise improved, I have no qualms about revisions for the sake of posterity.

I personally will be editing out the unfinished sentence that somehow made it through the proofreading of my first e-mail.

Out of curiosity, do you have a public web page?

Best regards,