HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ge.gms@forsythe.stanford.edu (Greg Smith)
Subject: Re: Arancia all' Orologeria
Organization: Stanford University
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 00:06:02 GMT

In article <1992Jul23.160212.21628@doug.cae.wisc.edu>, bonness@cae.wisc.edu (Matthew Bonness) writes:
> 
> I just read Burgess' _A Clockwork Orange_, a most
> interesting and compelling book. I especially liked
> his invention of a new language for the narration.
> Can anyone suggest any other books with this feature?
> (I hope it's not endemic to just this book). Also,
> are any of the other Burgess books commensurate to
> this one and worth reading?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> ------
> Matt.
> 
> 

The book that comes to mind first is Russel Hoban's Riddley Walker.  I've 
seen it mentioned here before, so I know I'm not the only one willing to
speak up for it.

This week I've been reading a lot of Bertie Wooster stories and thinking,
"Who does this remind me of?"  And it dawned on me that Bertie Wooster sounds
a lot like Alex of Clockwork Orange.  But maybe the connection I've made 
isn't so terribly clever; maybe it's the sort of connection no Englishman 
would make because he's heard Bertie/Alex speech all his life.

I'm a big fan of Burgess's, and get endless pleasure from rereading his 
collection of essays called Homage to Qwertyuiop.  But the only novel of his
I ever reread was Earthly Powers.  Many others of his I've read once, thinking,
"This is great stuff.  What a master!"--but will I really reread them?  Maybe
in my toothless old age.  I really do think I might like to reread the Enderby
novels sooner than that.

Greg  
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: emma@Csli.Stanford.EDU (Emma Pease)
Subject: Re: Unspoken Words
Keywords: Party games?
Organization: Stanford University CSLI
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 00:52:06 GMT

In <1992Jul29.222303.757@leland.Stanford.EDU> gere@umunhum.stanford.edu (Susan Gere) writes:

>    I think we're going to need a R.A.B. drinking game.  First, everyone
>brings your favorite port, sherry, or single malt scotch.  Then hoist a
>glass for each instance of:  

> a)  Nested indentations beyond 2 tab stops from Francis.
> b)  Articles of more than 5 lines (own words) from JMC.
> c)  New address from INFIDEL to confound kill files.
> d)  Anything with expired dateline from Mike Morris.

None of the above deal with literature but only with the mechanics of
posting.   One could consider allusions to various authors or works
or, to continue the mechanics trend,

  e)  Any poem written by the poster
  f)  Misspelled or misused word (1 sip)
  g)  To bring this back to the subject, any word in any poem that
      does not rhyme though the author thought it did.

Emma

ps. May we add Darjeeling to the drinks mention above?
pps. When and where should the party be? :-)
From: mworley@mathcs.emory.edu (Meg Worley)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Asimov and the Decay of SF
Date: 26 Jul 92 03:27:38 GMT
Organization: Emory University, Dept of Math and CS

In article <1992Jul24.194709.1844@sco.com>, joannee@sco.COM (Joanne Eglash) writes:
> 
> Can anyone recommend fiction (both by authors in previous decades and
> current writers) in which the subject of science and scientists is
> handled intelligently?  Such as a book about a marine biologist, 
> perhaps?  I seem to remember a book about a woman who was interested in
> anthropology...Margaret Drabble?  Lloyd's birthday is in August, and
> I'm going to sneak in a novel with his other gifts! 
> 
> Thanks for any help. Please respond to this e-mail address.
> 
> joanne

C.P. Snow.  Anything by him.  He was a fine and respected scientist, and,
I believe, an even more fine and respected novelist.  Not bad as an
essayist either (cf _The Two Cultures_, which might do both you and your
friend a spot of good, as it has done me and mine).  

A bit of a cold fish too, but that's not important.

Rage away,

meg

-- 

 Meg Worley 				Internet:  mworley@mathcs.emory.edu
From: jahb@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (JENNIFER A. HEISE)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Revisited Classics (was Re: Little Men)
Date: 24 Jul 92 20:42:29 GMT
Organization: Lehigh University

In article <1992Jul22.210647.8561@csusac.csus.edu>, yarnot@csusac.csus.edu (Jan
Yarnot) writes:
>Sometimes I worry about what I've done to my kids' expectations of women's
>roles in society, considering my favorites usually have "she married well and
>lived happily ever after" endings, like the Anne-of-Green-Gables books, or
>LITTLE WOMEN, etc., but they seem to have come out of the "read to me" stage
>unscathed.

The peculiar thing about these "she married well, etc." is that in most of
them, it seems one does not "dwindle" into a wife; nor do men have nothing to
do with the household. In the second part of "Little Women" ("Good Wives"),
there are a couple of interesting passages. For instance, (however goopy it
may seem) Meg and John end up with a much more equal marriage than you would
expect.  And Professor Baher is more than happy to be a "caregiver" to
children.
Hmm?
-- 
Jennifer Heise                           Net: jahb@lehigh.edu
Reference Dept.,                         Phone: (215) 758-3072
Fairchild-Martindale Libraries #8A,  Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015

"You know I don't know so many things, but I know what's been goin' on:
They put in a nickel, and they want a dollar song"
From: kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: I don't like Dickens...so sue me!
Date: 21 Jul 92 17:23:51 GMT
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Richard John Rauser writes:

>
>   As a graduate student in English lit. it sometimes bothers me that I don't
>like Dickens. After all he is, well, Dickens. I love Shakespeare, Dostoevsky,
>Swift, Twain (well, sort of), Kafka, Tolstoy, Melville and tons of other
>great writers, but Dickens leaves me cold. 
>
>    I suppose the reason for this is the same reason that almost all Victorian
>novels leave me cold: society dominates everything. I am simply not interested
>in why town politics shape and distort the lives of the Middlemarchers (George
>Eliot's _Middlemarch_) and I find it hard to become excited about the 
>struggles with politics and revolution portrayed in _A Tale of Two Cities_. 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

>    I prefer the psychological, introspective complexities of Hamlet, Crime
>and Punishment, An American Tragedy, or even Frankenstein or Dracula. 
>Dickens and his contemporaries were simply too caught up with Victorian
>England (esp. London) to hold my interest.

	Well, I'd say if you think _Tale of Two Cities_ is only about
politics and revolution, then you might put aside your distaste for
Dickens and read it again, especially given your interest in
"introspective complexities".

>    Perhaps Dickens is something you appreciate over time...after all, I read
>an essay by an Oxford PhD (forget his name) in which he said that it took
>him until age 30 to appreciate Milton. 

	I'd agree with this. I think there are some authors that
should be witheld until a certain age.

>    Forgot to mention it, but Dickens is also painfully sentimental...

	Sentimentality is terribly out of fashion these days.


>Richard J. Rauser       "Remember, no matter where you go,
>rauser@sfu.ca               there you are."
>WNI                               -Buckaroo Banzai


	Keith
--
Keith Morgan		      | Just because your voice reaches half-
MIT Libraries                 | way around the world doesn't mean
kamorgan@athena.mit.edu	      | you are wiser than when it reached 
                              | only to the end of the bar. Ed Murrow
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: Sayers/Marsh - 2 quick questions
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 15:31:31 GMT

In article <1992Jul28.133419.11213@morrow.stanford.edu> francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir) writes:

>They are, in chronological order,
>
>	Strong Poison
>	Have his Carcase
>	Gaudy Night
>	Busman's Honeymoon
>
>and then the short stories
>
>	The Haunted Policeman
>	Talboys
>
>Reading them in chronological order is not a bad idea. There is a
>development of character that otherwise is lost.

I second Francis's recommendation here. I read GAUDY NIGHT first, and
had the sense throughout that I had missed too many important events
in the relationship between Peter and Harriet to fully appreciate their
interaction in GN.


--Mike



-- 
Mike Godwin,     |"Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a law-
mnemonic@eff.org | breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every
(617) 864-0665   | man to become a law unto himself. It invites anarchy."
EFF, Cambridge   |         --Brandeis, J., dissenting in Olmstead v. U.S.  
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.arts.sf.misc,rec.humor,alt.folklore.urban
From: streeter@cs.unca.edu (Tom Streeter)
Subject: Re: help please, when did Isaac Asimov die?
Organization: University of North Carolina at Asheville
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 21:46:00 GMT

In article <l6u1ecINNq8v@male.EBay.Sun.COM> jimj@cleanplate.EBay.Sun.COM (James D. Jones) writes:
>Nope.  They go to Heck, which is sort of like an eternal college faculty
>party in a large, rambling flat.  It's always 11:30 p.m. on Friday night,
>the bathtub's full of imported beer, and they've got good Mondavi jug wine in
>the kitchen.  If you're not lucky, though, you might end up arguing
>phenomenology with a bearded guy in a tweed jacket (pipe smoker, of course)
>until the end of time.

Now *this* is scary...............

--Tom "going to go sign up for a religion, quick!" Streeter



-- 
Tom Streeter                                |   streeter@cs.unca.edu
Dept. of Mass Communication                 |   704-251-6227
University of North Carolina at Asheville   |   Opinions expressed here are
Asheville, NC 28804                         |   mine alone.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,alt.books.reviews
From: lee@wang.com (Lee Story)
Subject: Re: Re-reading (was RAH)
Organization: Wang Laboratories, Inc.
Distribution: usa
Date: 28 Jul 92 16:47:02
	<1992Jul24.163227.4521@bas-a.bcc.ac.uk> <1992Jul24.130651@IASTATE.EDU>
	<1992Jul25.233617.11433@slammer.UUCP>,<1992Jul26.160741@IASTATE.EDU>
	<0095E2AA.A3911600@Msu.oscs.montana.edu>
	<SWB.92Jul27102057@mitchell.cit.cornell.edu>

In article <SWB.92Jul27102057@mitchell.cit.cornell.edu>
	  swb@nr-tech.cit.cornell.edu (Scott Brim) writes: 

      That leads me to my question: Have any of you gone back and
	  re-read books from any genre that you loved/liked as a child, up
	  through, say, high school? Did the book hold up well?  Was it
	  awful? Why do you think either reaction happened? I took a
	  children's lit course this summer, and had to re-read
	  _Charlotte's Web_. I'm really sorry I did, since I had liked it
	  as a kid. I really disliked it as an adult.

Well, Scott has a point.  I first read _The_Brothers_Karamazov_ and
_Ulysses_ as a teenager, and going back to them I can see that they
are simply awful.  The same for _Charlotte's_Web_, _Stuart_Little_,
_The_Trumpet_of_the_Swan_, and (while we're at it)
_Alice's_Adventures_in_Wonderland_, _The_Phantom_Tollbooth_,
_A_Wrinkle_in_Time_, and the tales of H.C.A. and those lousy Grimm
brothers.  Ray Bradbury and Piers Anthony have held up much better.

The $21K/year English teachers tell me this is because people in the
computer business have inferior discrimination and generally bad taste,
but I think they're just jealous of our six-figure salaries!
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Lee Story (lee@wang.com) Wang Laboratories, Inc.
            (this email address disappears 14 August;
 I may be reborn as lee@bostech.com or something similar in September)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.arts.sf.misc,rec.humor,alt.folklore.urban,alt.religion.kibology
From: richg@hatch.socal.com (Rich Greenberg)
Subject: Re: help please, when did Isaac Asimov die?
Organization: Hatch Usenet and E-mail.  Playa del Rey, CA
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 03:55:57 GMT

>In article <BrL9wz.F2F@news.udel.edu>, stabosz@chopin.udel.edu (Rae Stabosz) writes:
> Hi,
 
> My daughter would like to prove to someone that Isaac Asimov has died.
> This person, a real fan of Asimov's, refuses to believe it.  She's
> also got $20 riding on this.  Can someone give me either his actual
> date of death, or at least the month?  She's going to start looking
> through newspaper archives, but all we can remember is that it was
> maybe sometime in winter.

Acording to the editorial in the 9/92 issue of Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine,
he died April 6, 1992 :-(((

He was 72 years old and had been ill for about a year.

RIP Isaac.

-- 
                
Rich Greenberg - N6LRT - 310-649-0238 - richg@hatch.socal.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: jmc@SAIL.Stanford.EDU (John McCarthy)
Subject: Re: On-Line Library of Congress Catalog?
Reply-To: jmc@cs.Stanford.EDU
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Date: 30 Jul 92 14:02:06

In another connection, the Library Congress was loc.gov which seems
right.  the .com address would suggest an "added value" commercial
firm.  The other connection was that there is a small sample of
their exhibit of Communist Party of the Soviet Union documents
available by ftp from seq1.loc.gov.  Quite a lot of interesting
stuff, totalling about 25 documents.

--
John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
*
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
From: 16blue@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Felisberto Herna'ndez
Date: 30 Jul 92 13:36:38 +1200
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

Yo to all Rabistas;

                  I am interested in finding information on books available
by Felisberto Herna'ndez a Uruguayan writer particularly in translation.
Any info anyone can provide would be much appreciated.


Brett


  <-=-=-=-><=-=-=-=><-=-=-=-><=-=-=-=><-=-=-=-><=-=-=-=><-=-=-=->
 Brett Loper, Chemistry Dept,     /\   "... And she tried to fancy
 School of Science & Technology,  \/   what the  flame of a candle
 University of Waikato, Private    _   looks like after the candle
 Bag 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand. | |  is blown out."
 16blue@waikato.ac.nz             | |              - Lewis Carroll
  <=-=-=-=><-=-=-=-><=-=-=-=><-=-=-=-><=-=-=-=><-=-=-=-><=-=-=-=>
From: rnewman@bbn.com (Ron Newman)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: _A Constitutional History of the United States_
Date: 29 Jul 92 22:01:10 GMT
Organization: Bolt, Beranek & Newman, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: spcsun25.bbn.com

In article <11441@optilink.UUCP>, cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes:
|> Unfortunately, I run into too many college
|> students like the gal who recently expressed amazement at discovering 
|> the U.S. had a Civil War in the last century. 

OK, I'll bite.  What Civil War have we had since 1892?

-- 
Ron Newman		rnewman@bbn.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: fehr@ms.uky.edu (Jeff Davis)
Subject: Re: Recent Reading
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 14:18:13 GMT
Organization: Loose Affiliation of Millionaires and Billionaires and Baby

Garry Peterson writes:
>
>
>	Utz tells the complex story of Utz who is a Czech collector of 
>porcelain figurines.  Utz lives is born before the first world war and 
>lives through the second, communism, and then dies following the Prague 
>spring.  Utz was Chatwin's last book before he died in the late 
>eighties.
>
_Utz_ should be read in conjunction with the posthumous collection
of Chatwin's essays, _What Am I Doing Here_. There are any number of
short pieces in the collection which seem like spade work for the
fiction. 

While _Utz_ can be read straight up, the fact that Chatwin thought
he was dying of a rare and exotic bone disease which he contracted
in China turns the elegant, chilly themes of _Utz_ into something
a little more Purgatorial. It is a slight book, hardly a stretch
more than a long short story, but it and _The Black Hill_ are my
favorite books by Chatwin. Both are recommended.
-- 
Jeff Davis <davis@keats.ca.uky.edu> Repeat after me:
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:13518 sci.skeptic:13439 talk.religion.misc:13094
From: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson)
Subject: Re: Agnostics and Athiests
Organization: Famed Parquet Floor
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 01:48:41 GMT

In article <b77mbt0l@csv.warwick.ac.uk> csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~) writes:
>In article <1992Jul24.075717.104265@zeus.calpoly.edu> rcasey@zeus.calpoly.edu (Rosalie J Casey) writes:
>>
>>Let's not forget the Apatheists.  We don't know and we don't really care.
>
>Please can I join?
>
>The Wisp.

They're not very well organized, but they will have a booth at the 1989
Procrastinators' Club convention this coming fall in Milwaukee.

Phil
-- 
|play: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG; {ames|pyramid|vsi1}!zorch!phil                |
|work: phil@gsi; sgi!gsi!phil            | Phil Gustafson                   |
| "Don't believe in ads.  Don't believe in government.  Watch yourself --   |
|  everybody is trying to screw you!"  Bill Gaines, 1922-1992               |
From: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Mao II by Don DeLillo
Date: 24 Jul 92 17:44:01 GMT
Reply-To: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Organization: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology
In-reply-to: kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan)

In article <1992Jul24.171134.21350@athena.mit.edu>, kamorgan@athena (Keith Morgan) writes:
>And the great joke of the novel, the one that places _White Noise_
>into the ranks of great campus novels: The Department of Hitler Studies.

Adolf, we hardly knew you, as one critic put it.
-- 
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.arts.sf.misc,rec.humor,alt.folklore.urban,alt.religion.kibology
From: gary@sci34hub.sci.com (Gary Heston)
Subject: Re: help please, when did Isaac Asimov die?
Reply-To: gary@sci34hub.sci.com (Gary Heston)
Organization: SCI Systems, Inc., Huntsville, Al.
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 14:46:58 GMT

>>>In article <BrL9wz.F2F@news.udel.edu>, stabosz@chopin.udel.edu (Rae Stabosz) writes:

>>> My daughter would like to prove to someone that Isaac Asimov has died.
>>> This person, a real fan of Asimov's, refuses to believe it.  

This person is lying to your daughter. If he were a real fan of Asimovs', 
he'd have a subscriber to _Isaac Asimovs' Science Fiction Magazine_, and
would have read the announcement in the issue before last, as well as the
editorial in the last issue.

This person, therefore, is not a Real Fan [TM].

Your daughter wins by default!

-- 
Gary Heston    SCI Systems, Inc.  gary@sci34hub.sci.com   site admin
The Chariman of the Board and the CFO speak for SCI. I'm neither.
"Always remember, that someone, somewhere, is making a product that will
make your product obselete." Georges Doriot, founder of American R & D.
From: levine@symcom.math.uiuc.edu (Lenore Levine)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Dickens vs. Twain
Date: 21 Jul 92 20:14:58 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.Brr9L0.8p8
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

rauser@fraser.sfu.ca (Richard John Rauser) writes:

>   I've always seen a parallel between these two...both were late 19th
>century novelists, both saw themselves as social prophets of a sort,
>and both concerned themselves with their society's outcasts in their
>novels. 

>   So who do you prefer?

Twain, a million times over. Because:

1) The names Dickens uses grate on my nerves. Sort of like fingernails
   scratching on a blackboard. (On the other hand, I *love* the Gilbert
   and Sullivan names.)

2) Mark Twain was humorous and irreverent. Dickens was often sickly-
   sweet sentimental.

3) From reading the stuff of both of them, one gets the impression that
   Mark Twain was basically a very nice person, and Dickens was not.
   (At least I've always gotten that impression.)

4) Dickens was required in school. A lot of Mark Twain's ideas were the
   kind that schools in the 50's and 60's did *not* want young people
   to get. (And all the more cherished, for that reason.)

P.S. Maybe Huckleberry Finn *was* required in my school. But if so,
     the book was so good it overcame even that obstacle; I remember
     just the entertainment, not the requirement.
From: kassover@rumsey.crd.ge.com (David Kassover)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Fiction with scientists (WAS Re: Asimov and the Decay of SF
Date: 30 Jul 92 20:44:30 GMT
Organization: GE Corporate R&D Center

In article <1992Jul30.153003.22068@ncar.ucar.edu> chucks@uars2.acd.ucar.edu (Chuck Smythe) writes:
...
>
>Alas, I don't think this does it.  I consider _The Disposessed_ to be on the
>short list for the best sf novel ever, but its treatment of science and
>scientists isn't particularly realistic.

I wonder exactly how much influence her father and his milieu had
on LeGuin's views of scientists, and science and other social
processes.

Or if her writings are direct conduits to her thoughts and
feelings on the matter.



-- 
David Kassover             "Proper technique helps protect you against
uupsi!khazad!kassover	          sharp weapons and dull judges."
kassover@aule-tek.com                   F. Collins
kassover@ra.crd.ge.com
From: mike@maths.tcd.ie (Mike Rogers)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Voodoo
Date: 25 Jul 92 22:47:36 GMT
Organization: none

In article <china.711836353@merlin>, china@cqs.washington.edu (Peter Westhagen) wrote:
>Does anyone know of any well written, fictionalized voodoo stories that 
>stick to the facts, that is educational and entertaining?

_On Stranger Tides_ Tim Powers.  Quite good, excellent sense of location.
-- 
Mike Rogers,Box 6,Regent Hse,##EveryoneHasTheRightToFreedomOfOpinionAndExpressio
TCD,EIRE. <mike@maths.tcd.ie>##nThisRightIncludesFreedomToHoldOpinionsWithoutInt
###############################erferenceAndToSeekReceiveAndImpartInformationAndI
deasThroughAnyMediaAndRegardlessOfFrontiers...#10 UN Declaration of Human Rights
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.arts.sf.misc,rec.humor,alt.folklore.urban,alt.religion.kibology
From: lmh@world.std.com (Larry M Headlund)
Subject: Re: help please, when did Isaac Asimov die?
Summary: Help for the humor impaired. 
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 21:12:07 GMT

In article <BrupK8.82@ecf.toronto.edu> ricegm@ecf.toronto.edu (George Matthew Rice) writes:
>In article <Brun1F.I7o@world.std.com> lmh@world.std.com (Larry M Headlund) writes:
>>>
>>	Gee, I didn't know Asimov was an engineer.
>
>I thought that he had a Ph.D. in biochemistry and he was tenured at 
>Boston U (or somewhere around there).
>
	What I was responding to was a statement to the effect that Asimov
believed that his thoughts could change the world to reflect what he imagined.
	Are we going to have to resort to smileys?

-- 
Larry Headlund  lmh@world.std.com    Eikonal Systems (617) 482-3345
From: wagner@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: A lovely letter about Kafka
Date: 27 Jul 92 20:15:31 GMT

A form of writing I'm very fond of is the spectacular letter.  I 
found one near the back of the Schocken edition of Kafka's 
_Letters to Milena_.  Mrs Polak nee Jesenska (the eponymous
heroine, dontcha know) wrote the letter I liked so much to Max
Brod (a close friend of Kafka's).  She tried to answer Max's
question "Why is Franz afraid of love but not of life?"  
Among other things, she describes a trip to the post office with 
Franz.  

The more I read by and about Kafka, the more amazing it seems to 
me that this peculiar and sensitive man has become such a cultural
icon.  Not amazing because he was mediocre or uninteresting, but 
because of the contrast between the posthumous publicity and the 
complicated way he felt about the "practical world" during his 
life- the contrast between the stark matter-of-factness of having 
your letters and scribblings printed, bound, and sold to interested
strangers and the tremendous complications involved in living 
and in deciding to write about something, to try to marry someone,
to take a trip to the Post office....
					-Luke
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,alt.horror