In 2019 I sent out copies of my book Sweet Bread to a few people I admired but had not met. One was to the American philosopher, academician, author Daniel C. Dennett. I had read a few of his books including From Bacteria to Bach. I always meant to write a review of FBtoB but aging had passed by the impetus to write criticism, technical manuals, &c.. I also got a lot from, and a rare charge from, his online video with Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens called The Four Horsemen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DKhc1pcDFM).
Perhaps because of the pandemic, or maybe he always did, Dr. Dennett answered his mail, or at least sent one guy (me) a very nice emailed response. Encouraged, below is the 2020 email I sent the distinguished philosopher in which I asked him for a quote for my book. The relevant part here is, “I am tempted to ask what you’ve been thinking about but perhaps I should wait and read it when it comes out.”
Here is a link about the book he published in 2023, I’ve Been Thinking.
Dr. Dennett passed away in 2024. America lost arguably among others its greatest living philosopher. He added something to Emerson and Thoreau. I wish I had the brain to understand some of the advanced science he described in FBtoB.
—–Original Message—–
From: editor@brasiliareview.org
Sent: Thursday, June 4, 2020 10:03pm
To: “Dennett, Daniel C.”
Subject: RE: Sweet Bread
Hello Dr. Dennett, thank you for your email and kind words. I very much appreciate it. As a reader of yours, may I say your lively writing makes me think you’re doing well and that is good to hear. How’s your plague going?
…
I hope you are having a productive time in the new now. I am tempted to ask what you’ve been thinking about but perhaps I should wait and read it when it comes out.
…
Best to you and yours, with gratitude, &c.
Two more.
Here is the article I posted in November 2020 in favor of Julian Assange while he was in prison. The relevant part is my satire of the English royal family. I had to accept my error in referring to him as whistleblower rather than a journalist.
http://www.brasiliareview.org/wordpress/issue28/non-fiction/of-the-by-dan-souder/
Assange wrote a number of letters during his years of unjust imprisonment. This is one he wrote while in prison in 2023, to the new king of England.
https://assangedefense.org/press-release/julian-assange-pens-letter-to-king-charles-iii/
If he somehow saw or was told about what I wrote and if it helped him in some way…
And3.
I wrote No Equals I in 2019 – 2020 and began serializing it here in November 2022. JM Coetzee published The Pole in October 2023. Coetzee is arguably the greatest living novelist (Pynchon’s still with us, Coupland, Rushdie, reluctantly Houellebecq, a few others). The Pole uses numbered paragraphs.