August 6, 2012

Dear Dr. Lakoff:

I would like to get a Ph.D. under you studying metaphors in Chinese characters and their corre-
spondent meanings in English. Written Chinese has been documented for 4,000 years, so it is the
perfect language to use as a comparison with other languages. Three women have meant adul-
tery for 4,000 years in Chinese, and still do. The women character is in many Chinese words.
I believe that mans love/hate relationship with women is a linguistic universal and is found in
every literate culture, not just Chinese. Your title Women, fre, and dangerous things, is the per-
fect description of how men fnd women: disturbing yet at the same time mesmerizing. This bias
is encoded into language even now. Why is milking an issue a bad thing? Why is a seminal
idea so good? Why is to disseminate information positive? In Chinese, the word for semen
is also the word for essence. It is a positive concept there as well as here. There are many such
similarities between Chinese, English, and Latin-based languages, but most people focus on dif-
ferences because they are in denial of our animalistic natures.
I am fnishing my third semester of Mandarin with an Intensive at Berkeley that is a 10-unit
course. I have spent the last three years studying Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Sumerian cu-
neiform as well as Chinese. The importance of breasts and eyesboth targetsis seen in those
languages, as well as in Maya. I would love to talk with you about the possibility of doing this
research under you. You can also check out my website at www.OriginofAlphabet.com. Ive had
over 25,000 readers. I am taking a Darwinian lens to language. The things which drive humans:
sex, power, and food, are evident in all early scripts, including our alphabet. We just have to want
to see it.

I have had two published novels (Catalyst, 1997, and Higher Math, 1991, both with Faber and
Faber) and a book on digital typography. I have a BA from UCLA and a MFA from San Diego
State. I was the music editor for the San Diego Reader for seven years. I have been married
for 26 years to a chemist who is head of Small Molecule Drug Discovery at Genentech. Weve
played in a rock band together for 27. I play the French horn, trumpet, and keyboard (a good ear
helps with Mandarin). I have read 95 books since Ive had this idea, and written 72 documents
which I have published online.
Please, can I meet with you?
Sincerely,
Jennifer Ball
originofalphabet@me.com