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16
Introduction to Natural Magic*
as told by
Heinz von Foerster
to
Paul Schroeder
(Edited and with a preface by Ranulph Glanville)
Hello Heinz, and hello Mai.
It is seven a.m., Monday morning, September 28, 1987. I am sitting in our
kitchen on a brilliant, crisp, clear fall morning here in Orono, Maine. My
children aren't up yet. Mazie is not up yet. A moment of peace to get started
on this taperecorded query.
It took a little longer for me to get this together than I had planned. I
had disabled the record function on our little tape recorder here at home,
and I didn't get around to fixing that until yesterday.
(The family rises.)
Hello, again. It is 11:35, same morning. All the flurries of the morning are
over. I wanted to share a little bit of our family life with you.
Pretty soon I should be getting to the point, which we discussed on the
telephone. Just some accounts. I have several specifics in mind. The first,
and we agreed on it, is that I would like to hear the background of the set
of volumes that you got, Heinz, from your cousin; I think it was from your
cousin.
What I would like, most of all, is to have the pleasure of hearing a few
of your stories again. I wish we could be there together with you. I am not
much concerned with obtaining a definitive version—there is never much
inconsistency in what you present. I can remember the themes of many of
your tales, but the details have been lost.
Because of course, when we sit and listen with attention to what you say,
and to each other at all times, we don't make very good notes. Then of
course, later it is difficult to make notes because the memory has not
been tuned. So, in a sense this is a matter of record, but not necessarily of
definitive record.
Now, before my family returns, and before we make all the preliminar-
ies a little too long, I hope you still accept my idea here. Please wait until
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