EXPLANATIONS FROM RALPH

                                                                           

I want to apologize to readers of the various "pieces" I've previously, and am now currently posting on what for me is still a relatively new communication medium. I'm afraid my "posts" haven't exactly been executed with proper chronological methodology, and I know they'll continue to appear in a somewhat chaotic fashion. But I'm proud to be living where I am today. I exist now amidst a large group of artistic type individuals who I've been successful in luring to, and then resettling along the near north shore of my city's river. As someone said recently, "Our city now seems to be experiencing a cultural renaissance in the way that Florence did in the fifteenth century, or as San Francisco did in the 1960's."

Naturally, I'm very proud of all that's already been produced by our "creative types" here. The word "art" encompasses many different genres as I'm sure you know. Thus, we have musicians, creative painters, entertainers, writers, and all sorts of others who simply create through physical materials living here. However, at any given time, probably only about one half of our people are at home here. As you may imagine, their careers often require them to travel extensively. Still, they now use our city as their home-base. 

To this point, the greatest success we've known here (in my opinion, and despite the fact that neither of them is still available commercially) has been the emergence of two books, written (or spoken to prose) and then organized into literary efforts. "The Same Tapes" is a complex book which tells the story of one of our residents - a young man who grew up here, but made a few mistakes along they way, and was then required to "live through" a harrowing retribution for what he'd done. His exploits of requital are documented in the book of tapes he recorded, and then asked his friend Jane to "transpose" to written prose for him. 

At this time I shall post the first six pages of that book's second chapter.  It, unlike the majority of chapters in the book, was written by Joe's friend Jane, and explains fairly well, I believe, what "The Same Tapes" is really about. But before I post it, I shall first list the books 54 chapter titles, and tell you what each chapter entails. 

The second book, "The Students Of The Highway," is more of a philosophical work. It's partially comprised of (especially in its earlier chapters) discourses concerning how each human must choose, upon adulthood, to live the remainder of his or her mortal years within one of four distinct "classifications" of mankind. But the book also recounts a number of incidents which befell residents of our city subsequent to the final events documented in the book "The Same Tapes." Also, "The Students Of The Highway" "lays the groundwork" for Charles Platt's (or Corzer as we refer to him), excursion to Paris which was, I guess, both successful and unsuccessful simultaneously. I'll post nothing from that book at this time, but expect to "see" one of its chapters in the near future. Also, as an aside, Rashon Leyf wishes to apologize for the misspelling of his last name in some earlier posts. I believe it appeared then as Rashon Fyle.