Work Text:
The following are excerpts from letters exchanged between a mathematician and an animal behaviorist
To: Dr. Ian Malcolm.
214 Bell Drive,
Dallas, Texas
United States of America
Forwarded to Baylor University Center of Medicine.
3500 Gaston Ave, Dallas, TX
United States of America
1\13\92
Dear Dr. Macolm.
My name is Sarah Harding. We have never met, but I am a field biologist who recently came across some of your work. I was very interested in what you had to say about complexity theory as it applies to behavioral evolution, extinction, and potential causes for the softening of the beachhead, which you scarcely touched on in your paper. I would greatly enjoy any further elaboration you may care to give on the subject.
Regards,
—---Dr Sarah Harding.
To: Dr Sarah Harding
P.P.O. Box 45678
00200 Nairobi
Kenya 2/21/92
Dear Dr Harding,
I appreciate your interest more than you imagine.
Complexity or chaos theory, as I like to call it, can be used to analyze any system, and I gravitate towards biological systems.
I have always found nature a fascinating force to behold, and I like to consider it in my research when I am able.
Most of your peers seem to think I should stay in my office on my computer or go to class and give lectures and let them be the ones to theorize about evolution. They may be right, but I do not much care what strangers think of me, and I have never quite grasped the skill of staying in my own lane. I would welcome your thoughts on the subject as someone who deals regularly with living systems.} End of excerpt
To: Dr Sarah Harding
P.O. Box 45678
00200 Nairobi
Kenya 3/1/92
Dear Dr Harding,
My ninth grade English teacher would be very happy to know I’m finally completing my summer assignment of finding a pen pal with a different perspective than mine. She knew I forged the letters but couldn’t prove it, poor woman.
I was very intrigued by your theories on predators within a closed environment. While I would very much like to see that experiment, I agree it would be difficult to execute and likely yield flawed data due to the artificial nature of the scenario. I’m curious about the pattern-breaking behaviors you mentioned in your last letter and look forward to your next letter. } End of excerpt
To: Dr. Ian Malcolm.
214 Bell Drive,
Dallas, Texas
United States of America
Forwarded to Baylor University Center of Medicine.
3500 Gaston Ave, Dallas, TX
United States of America 6/17/92
Start of excerpt
{Never before have I laughed so hard that a co-worker was concerned I went mad. I should very much like to know how the follow-up conversation went.
I have never met someone who wore only two colors before.
I tend to wear tan while working, but when I’m not, I have no set dress code. I simply wear what I like, often T-shirts and shorts. My sister tells me I dress like a little boy. To which I say that little boys and I have a strong overlap in interests. We like lions and tigers and don't mind the dirt.
I suppose that the thought that things could go wrong at any moment governs the lives of some but not mine. I don't tend to dwell on what might happen. I've never seen it framed so positively before, that things are just as likely to go radically right as they are to go disastrously wrong. It's one of the most optimistic theories I've heard of. And to think you told me you are a cynic!
Sincerely
–-Sarah Harding
P.S call me Sarah. Not Dr. Harding.
To: Dr Sarah Harding
P.O. Box 45678
00200 Nairobi
Kenya 7/13/92
Dear Dr. Harding,
No, I will not call you Sarah after only ten letters between us. My grandmother would rise from her grave to scold me, and as lately I have taken to seeing things that are not so, I don't wish for her to pay a visit.
You give me far more credit than I am due. I'm not the first to think of things this way; I just talk the most.
You are teaching me a good deal about biological systems and I will certainly credit you should I grind out another tedious paper, which I may do, as these days everything is horribly boring and sawdusty in nature. } End of excerpt
To: Dr Ian Malcolm
214 Bell Drive,
Dallas, Texas
United States of America
Forwarded to Baylor University Center of Medicine.
3500 Gaston Ave, Dallas, TX
United States of America
8/10/92
Start of excerpt
{You did not mention you have children; I like children and would maybe like to have a few myself one day. I have not decided.
No, I personally do not subscribe to the theory of a lost world. I am no Doyle.
There is no evidence to support such a possibility. For some little untouched corner of the earth to contain otherwise extinct animals as they were so long ago is, in my opinion, a paleontologist's pipe dream. Though I imagine before very long the geneticists will come out with what they will tell us is a dinosaur and is really some large Frankenstein reptile cobbled together from frogs and lizards and all manner of creatures.} End of excerpt
To: Dr. Ian Malcolm
214 Bell Drive,
Dallas, Texas
United States of America
Forwarded to Baylor University Center of Medicine. 3500 Gaston Ave, Dallas, TX
United States of America
8/28/92
Start of excerpt
{I have news that I flatter myself you may find pleasant. I am taking a sabbatical of at least a year and returning to America. I would very much like to meet you in person. In January I will be attending a conference in Dallas, Texas. It seems to me like an opportune time to meet up. Please write back and tell me what you think about the whole idea
Sincerely.
—Sarah
To: Dr Sarah Harding
P.O. Box 45678
00200 Nairobi
Kenya 9/26/92
Dear Dr. Harding,
The idea of meeting you in person sounds very pleasant, and I would be happy to accept your invitation if I could.
Unfortunately, I am currently hospitalized and will remain so for some time. I was injured in a car accident last summer and have been in and out of the hospital (mostly in) ever since. So you understand I cannot meet up with you. However, if you want to hang around a hospital in your spare time, who am I to stop you?
I currently reside at the Baylor University Center of Medicine. Room 117, floor three.
Regards, –Ian Malcolm