University of Virginia Library

Suffering Sumner

I would like to thank you for
your review ("Suffering
Cybernetics, Mr. Sumner") of my
show. It must have been your fair,
unbiased, open minded, intellectual
approach that brought such a
crowd (30 standing, 24 turned
away) on Friday night. One rarely
sees such careful cropping of lines
of verse. I mean, it would never
have occurred to me to omit the
last line of the narrative that
accompanies my drawing of
"Population": "These little men
who look like flies/Are like a baby
when he cries/For help/But no one
answers/ For the room is full."

And you are right, it
was pretension to use such terms as
"in person". After all, this is
Charlottesville. Funny, but no one
thought it pretentious when I
appeared in person in Rome, Paris,
London, Stockholm, Frankfort, or
a half dozen other cities outside the
U.S. And calling it a "world
premiere" was a bit premature on
my part, because I do plan to make
a few changes before it plays next
in Amsterdam in early December.

In spite of your stagnation, the
show goes on. Goodbye, David.

Lloyd Sumner

— Ed.