Dear Roy,
I assume this will reach you; I don't have any other e-mail address for you.
Well, it has been a week now since my visit to the Wizard Academy, and I am finally able to catch my breath. I mean that in more ways than one. I had so many things waiting for me that I've been busier than ever this last week. I also mean that I'm really only now beginning to understand and appreciate all you did in your Magical Worlds seminar. First of all, you are a great teacher, a natural, and that is rare enough in itself. I think your unique combination of Don Quixote, neuroscience, chaos theory, and aesthetics is quite extraordinary. Your lesson in stylistics—Frank and Hemmingway vs. Monet and Kerouac—was simply brilliant, the sort of thing that few literary scholars could do. The ads the participants wrote at the end of the session ranged from competent to brilliant, and all of them were made even better by your critiques.
I thank you profoundly for the way you accepted me into the group and made me feel a part of the program. And I am absolutely convinced that Cervantes would be very appreciative of what you and your colleagues, especially Dean Rotbart, want to do in his name. I’m proud to be a part of it.
We’re packing our suitcases now in order to leave tomorrow for a week in Miami with our oldest daughter. It will be very nice to be able to get out of town during this Spring Break and just relax for a while. I’m not taking my computer with me, and only four books of relatively easy reading. The semester and the administrative burden I’ve taken on end early in May. I can’t wait to get back to writing on cognitive science and Cervantes.
Again, thanks to you and all your staff for everything.
Until next time,
Dr. Howard Mancing
Purdue University