Subject: Re: Kroetenrettung as Smörgåsbord
From: Mahlon Berv <mbervcomposer@gmail.com>
Date: December 27, 2023 11:59

Dear Dr. Meyer and Nathaniel,

Fascinatingly, the new artificial intelligence software Chat GPT is surprisingly intelligent. Rather than a juvenile translation the way google works, GPT appears to analyze the text and put it in new words, endeavoring to capture the meaning behind the text in English. For example, it correctly figured out that the word stillen means silence! Whereas google made the wrong indication.

I will continue entering more in GPT and send you the result

Translation from GPT
""The written drama, whether as a script for a stage performance or as a text for an opera, aims, in comparison with other written endeavors, for extraordinary results, insofar as these do not act like a book as a work of art, but as an event imposing itself in real-time, threading directly into human experience. While the immediate experience of the individual largely eludes access, during a stage performance, the author's script becomes the immediate template for the momentary experience not only of the actor or singer but also, and especially, for the experience of the spectator or listener who participates in the presentation depending on his attention and sensitivity. For just as the actor is compelled by his engagement to put himself in the role prescribed to him, so the genuine spectator cannot help but, even if only silently, speak along, sing along, think along, empathize, and experience along with what is presented to him, to a degree of passion comparable to that of the actor.

This invocation of immediate experience should be considered both the starting point and the goal of my efforts. The play now appears in a dialectical sense, as effort and givenness that lies between the tension of thoughtless events, whether as melodrama or Punch and Judy, and a stage on which human experience is expressed in the most concise way. Between captivating theater and meaningful theater, there is contradiction and tension. Not everything exciting is necessarily meaningful, and hardly anything meaningful is exciting through its meaning. I see it as my task to resolve this contrast to the extent that my efforts appear stage-worthy. However, even if I do not succeed in this endeavor, the composer or director, if there should be one, would have the opportunity to compensate for my failure by altering, shortening, expanding, or improving my text.""

Mahlon