Page 18

By Jack Joseph Smith

Pluto-Monkey Dear Don Well,, you look like you watch out, those great film eyes of yours, but you don't. You had to when you were an athlete, or a long neck bird trapper, or a soldier, or a long line fishermen, or a hobby guy; with A MONKEY on your shoulder instead of on your back in the desert, or a student of micro bio, Logical Science, or a beachguard, and of course the best reader of Robert Frost on the continent. So try stay still and try go back. I hope your ok. No more than a year. But let them know your gonna stop. You and the way others have viewed you is a good history. Really now make your life presentable; not all that mixed up of the abstract wish, as the devil in the details of the ego and the id, for lack of a better phrase of bull shit. Love John Write me back.

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

Half letter and half character sketch, this page praises Don's many lives while urging him to stop performing the abstract self and make his life presentable.

The letter moves through affectionate exaggeration: Don becomes athlete, soldier, fisherman, beachguard, reader, and Pluto-Monkey figure with A MONKEY shifted from back to shoulder. Its counsel is blunt but intimate, asking him to try staying still, try going back, and make his life presentable rather than living inside abstract wish; the added Love John signature makes the rebuke feel personal rather than merely rhetorical.

Claude

'Pluto-Monkey' is a verse-letter 'Dear Don' that praises and prods: Don has 'great film eyes' that 'look like you watch out' but 'don't,' and a comic resume of lives - 'an athlete,' 'a long neck bird trapper,' 'a soldier,' 'a long line fishermen,' 'a hobby guy; / with A MONKEY on your shoulder instead / of on your back,' a 'student of micro bio,' 'beachguard,' and 'the best reader of Robert Frost on / the continent.' The counsel is blunt and intimate - 'try stay still and try go back,' 'make your / life presentable; not all that mixed up of the / abstract wish' - signed 'Love John' with 'Write me back.' This reading stays provisional: the page is needs-followup with uncertain handwriting in the marginal annotations near 'hobby guy' and the Frost note.