HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: RE: Who reads Rushdie?
From: nmlrc@uwpg02.uwinnipeg.ca
Date: 2 OCT 92 11:36:18 CST
Organization: University of Winnipeg

I have read some of Rushdie, and admit that Satanic Verses took some
doing but, a word of hope, it does get easier.  The characters begin
to come into their own, and the section on Mohammed is fascinating.
I have also read Midnight's Children which I enjoyed but missed,
like I did in Satanic Verses, many of the allusions.  That however,
I don't think, is necessarily a bad thing.  I was aware of unfamiliar
ideas, situations and so began to get a different sense of how to
think about the world, or at least Rushdie's world. I know someone
who is reading _Imaginary Lands_ and finds the articles/essays
worth the read.

If you want to read an American writer who plays with elements of
magical realism (what ever that means now) read Toni Morrison.
She doesn't quite fit the definition but there is more than a
dash of it in _Beloved_ , _Song of Solomon_.  I have just started
_Jazz_ and so can't speak (write?) on that.

I would also be interested in further discussion on _Satanic Verses_

Miriam Unruh
From: le01167@portal.lasc.lockheed.com (Ron Nadel)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Kafka's "Metamorphasis"
Date: 3 Oct 92 22:33:38 GMT
Organization: Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. - Rye Canyon
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <1ai3k3INNkar@agate.berkeley.edu>, peterme@ocf.berkeley.edu (Peter Merholz) writes...

>Anyway, I took the story literally, that the man had turned into a bug. This
>didn't sit well with my psychologically-minded reader, who believed that the
>bug idea all happened in his mind, and that I was wrong to have taken it
>literally (she even graded me down for my interpretation! However, I did 
>convince her that she was being unreasonable about that). I don't really
>think there was *more* going on than what was visible... I think people tend
>to get too analytical, to deep in their exigesis, and forget that many 
>people (even the _great writers_) write stories for entertainment. However
>you take it, _Metamorphosis_ is a very good story. And I still believe that
>he really turned into a bug (too many clues suggest it).
> 
Boy!  Kafka would be turning over in his chrysalis if he could see this. 
Kafka did not write stories just for entertainment!  Estrangement and identity
problems were a theme of his life and work - read The Trial for more.  I see
this and hear this all the time, when someone says that I'm too analytical
about something, either they missed something and that's their best defense,
or the interpretation touches on a realm that is cause for discomfort.  And,
I'll admit that sometimes one can be too reductionist.  Sometimes.

In any case, what did you expect from a course on "psychology and literature"?
when you toss out the basis of the course (psychological analysis) in favor 
of the superficial part of the work, it should come as no surprise that you 
would run into problems!  Sounds like the professor did not give enough 
background and preparation that would aid in discovering the imago hinted at in 
the larva as it were.

I too took a course on psychoanalysis and literature, and without some good
preparation on psychological thinking etc., a student cannot be expected to
divine too much of the psychological content.

Meanwhile, maybe we could start a list of Great Writers who wrote literature 
to merely entertain, and we can call it the Roll of Tellers Who Made With No 
Intentions. 8^}

Ron
From: mworley@mathcs.emory.edu (Meg Worley)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Books in the time of school
Date: 5 Oct 92 17:05:16 GMT
Article-I.D.: emory.9700
Organization: Emory University, Dept of Math and CS


What got me throught high school?  *A Child's Garden of Pot* (I
think that was the name -- I ditched my copy at some point along
the way), the ever-handy guide to growing marijuana.  Bucked me
up not only mentally but financially as well.

Rage away,

meg

-- 

 Meg Worley 				Internet:  mworley@mathcs.emory.edu		
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir)
Subject: Re: She's baaaaack.....Camille Paglia
Organization: Stanford Exploration Project
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 12:49:57 GMT

Tim Starr writes:

	Barbara Hlavin writes:

		Norman Mailer is an intellectual vampire bitch.  
		(But at least he can think his way out of a paper 
		bag, and jesus can he write.) 

	Paglia ain't stupid either, no matter if she disagrees with 
	you or whomever.  I don't agree with her completely (albeit 
	probably more than most), but I don't have to resort to 
	calling her stupid because of this.

Tim, Tim, Tim. Where did Barbara call Miss Paglia stupid?  It is a fact
that she has a disjointed, staccato style that does not smoothly flow
from thought to thought in a conventional, "logical" way. Personally, I
like her dyslectic writing -- maybe because it matches the way I think.

							Fido
From: rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu (Roger Squires)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Literature students
Date: 30 Sep 92 23:06:34 GMT
Article-I.D.: lynx.k3-py6g
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <5320@balrog.ctron.com> mattb@olympus.ctron.com (Matt Brown) writes:
>
>Teddy Roosevelt types (anachronisms even then) would enjoy Hemingway
>stylistically. Modern bestseller readers probably don't.
>

	Just call me "TR."

>Matt

Roger Squires
rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu
From: blue@cam.nist.gov (Jim_Blue_x3809)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: The NEW Yorker!
Date: 2 Oct 92 18:22:40 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

In article <1992Oct2.162634.1143@leland.Stanford.EDU>, ehle@leland.Stanford.EDU (Robert Ehle) writes:
|> I haven't been able to find a newsgroup for which this post is
|> perfectly suited; I hope this is not too off the subject on any of the
|> groups I'm sending to.
|> 
|> I'm wondering what people's reactions are to the new format and
|> advertising strategy of The New Yorker magazine (see the October 5
|> issue). I'm thinking of cancelling my subscription unless they pull
|> the perfume ads. Also, I count eleven pages of ads in the first
|> fourteen pages of the magazine.
|> 
|> Am I already a curmudgeon?  Jeez, I'm only 34!

You don't have to be old to be a Dirty Old Man or a Curmudgeon.

What's with all this perfume lately? Besides TNY, the NYT Magazine
and the Washington Post Magazine have had perfumes in them that are
enough to make a sensitive reader puke.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: amie@hubcap.clemson.edu (Amie Hamilton)
Subject: Re: Native American Indian novels
Organization: Clemson University
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 13:52:30 GMT



You also might wanna check out the Children of the Wolf series. It is a
historical perspective on the Native American (written by two archeologists
from Wyoming) before white man ever affected their lives. I have quite enjoyed
the series, but for fair warning the stories can drag a bit. Good stuff
otherwise!!!
                                                      Amie

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: msmorris@watsci.uwaterloo.ca (Mike Morris)
Subject: Re: More Notes from the Decline
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 15:02:09 GMT

                              Monday, the 5th of October, 1992

Fiona, Fiona:
                      The scene you describe seems to feature the
  sort of person who (to refer to another thread here) would buy the
  items advertised in the _New_Yorker_--a Republican, that is. 

I am deeply offended by the aspersion here implicit! Even John
Wojdylo didn't call me anything so horrible. You should
know they don't read.

And this, I just don't get:
                                                               In these
  near-election times, I am deeply ashamed to have a sister who keeps
  Golden Retrievers, and parents who still think that because George
  Bush spoke at my high school graduation, that makes him a keen guy.

The high-school graduation bit, I do (get), because Martha tells about how
she first decided Quayle was a jerk back when he was running for the
Senate and came to speak at her high school. He claimed that the problem with
the economy was that women were working, taking jobs away from men,
but Martha's classmates (both male and female it seems) simply relished
having had a celebrity speak to them.

No, I mean the Golden Retrievers! You'd substitute maybe some
lesser life form, like cats?

                      Mike Morris
             (msmorris@watsci.uwaterloo.ca)


Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: boebert@sctc.com (Earl Boebert)
Subject: _A Walk in the Sun_ (was: WWII Novels)
Organization: SCTC
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 14:14:06 GMT

(Season with IMHO to taste.)

A bit hard to find, but worth the effort; written by one Harry Brown,
who to my knowlege wrote nothing before nor since.  Tightly focused on
one platoon lost in the fog of war. Rings with greater truth than all
of Mailer and Jones put together.  Later made into a movie that,
although above average, does not do the book justice.

Another novel, nowhere near as good but still much better than the
movie that was made from it, was Lay and Bartlett's _Twelve O'Clock
High_. It is interesting mainly as a study of a particular style of
leadership.

Earl
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: starr@genie.slhs.udel.edu (Tim Starr)
Subject: Re: She's baaaaack.....Camille Paglia
Organization: UDel, School of Life & Health Sciences
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 04:44:11 GMT

In article <1992Sep27.092156.2074@leland.Stanford.EDU> jchokey@leland.Stanford.EDU (James Alexander Chokey) writes:
}	Personally, I've thought Paglia to be the American Nietzche of the
}20th century.

No!  Henry Louis Mencken!  Say she isn't!  My poor psyche's struggling to
come to grips with the possibility!  Howabout a compromise: she can be the
Nietzsche of the post-WWII period, Mencken of the period between the World
Wars?


Tim Starr - Renaissance Now! - Think Universally, Act Selfishly
starr@genie.slhs.udel.edu

"True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten
oneself and others." - Voltaire
From: jimh@pongo.Eng.Sun.COM (jim hori)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Enforced Shakespeare
Date: 1 Oct 1992 15:06:06 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
Distribution: world, rec, usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: pongo

In article <9209301640.AA23617@coventry.Corp.Sun.COM> Lisa.Levine@Corp.Sun.COM (Lisa Levine) writes:
>(However, the idea of doing these plays in any other
>contemporary dialect makes me cringe!)

I always thought Lord Buckley's rewrite of Marc Antony's funeral
oration was hilarious: "Hipsters, flipsters. finger snappin' (snap)
(snap) daddys, knock me your lobes! I came to lay out Caesar, not
to hip you to him..."

Of course, much of the appeal of this performance, and his other
famous orations, had to do with his dramatic delivery and beatnik/
aristocrat persona.



....
jimh@west.sun.com

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books

> [Re "The Winds of War"] My main
> recollections of the TV adaptation are that it spent too much time on
> events like the plot to kill Hitler that were barely mentioned in the
> books (and are largely irrelevant to the plot), and that Ali McGraw was
> more convincing than Jane Seymour.

I've never seen the TV version.  Who played what roles?

Claudia
From: kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Virgo Intaglio (Was: 1$a)Re: Stormin' Norman
Date: 7 Oct 92 00:31:54 GMT
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology


	francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir) writes:

	Who is the rightful heir to Nietzsche?

I don't think that Nietzsche had any heirs, that he died without
issue. While we may all be, in a sense, Nietzsche's children, I can't
think of anyone that has brought together his particular philosophic
sensibilities, cultural perceptions, and stylistic madness. If there
are any unsung heirs I doubt that they are laboring in philosophy
departments. Perhaps some mad poet in the mountains, a la Zarathustra,
could give a new twist to Nietzche's voice. I doubt it however. 
  
	Francis also wonders:

	To whom is CP [that is, Camille Paglio] the rightful heir?


Isn't Camille ripped from the pages of Euripides, one of the Furies?
The chickens of the 60s coming home to roost with a vengeance.


Keith

--
Keith Morgan		 |I've always had a secret desire to harangue
kamorgan@athena.mit.edu  |a crowd of people for 10 hours in the
		         |sweltering heat. It's the origin of my
		         |fascination with public language.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: wojdylo@maths.uwa.oz.au (INFIDEL)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: literature students
Date: 30 Sep 92 01:20:10 GMT
Organization: The University of Westrn Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: madvax.maths.uwa.oz.au

francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir) writes:

>INFIDEL writes:

>	If Barclay is frustrated by wet-behind-the-ears uni students, 
>	why doesn't she do the sensible thing and get out and meet the 
>	people of her calibre ? Travel to Asia, for instance. 

>Which reminds me. One of the ancient rituals in Australia, well, Western 
>Australia, is, was, for kids leaving school to take off overseas for a
>couple of years. It seemed then like an excellent idea that should export
>itself to the Old and other New Worlds.

It certainly is an excellent idea; and it's still in. Europe and Asia
are the main destinations; rarely is the U.S. considered. Ronnie Raygun
did wonders for her image.


>							Fido

jw
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: She's baaaaack.....Camille Paglia
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1992 16:09:15 GMT

In article <9210040515.AA27466@cfdev1.shearson.com> mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto) writes:
 
>I decided to look through one of Camille Paglia's books to see what all
>the fuss is about.  The first two chapters are about Madonna.  In the first,
>she proclaims one of Madonna's video's as pornographic, and states that it
>is wonderful.  The second chapter started out with "I'm a dyed in the wool
>Madonna fan . . . ."  I put down the book, and moved on to something more
>interesting.
> 
>I've been told that Ms Paglia has some interesting ideas, and some keen
>observations hidden in her works -- if only one is interested in wading
>through the shit.  Having now seen the shit, I've put away my wading boots,
>and will not take the plunge.

I suppose it doesn't help anything, Mark, if I tell you that I too am a
dyed-in-the-wool Madonna fan?

By the way, this business of browsing through books *from the
beginning*--Mark, you've got to get over that. 


--Mike




-- 
Mike Godwin,    |"Liberty resides in the rights of that person
mnemonic@eff.org| whose views you find most odious."
(617) 864-0665  | 
EFF, Cambridge  |                           --John Stuart Mill
From: barclay@RAIL9000.gatech.edu (Barclay Blanchard)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Books in the time of school
Date: 4 Oct 92 19:16:26 GMT
Organization: Georgia Tech Research Institute

In article <1992Oct3.175258.25914@cactus.org> kate@cactus.org (Katherine M. Catmull) writes:
>As for books: I have an old habit of asking people "What's the book
>that got you through high school?"--you know, the book that
>kept you going, made you strong; that you re-read when in need of bucking up,
>perhaps even returned to in college like a teddy bear once in a
>while, maybe even occasionally now . . .

For me it was probably _The Once and Future King_ from high school.
From college, _The Princess Bride_ or _Siddhartha_.


-- 
Barclay Elizabeth Blanchard    barclay@rail9000@gatech.edu
"I've been laughed at by some of the funniest people."
--Lissie, Alice Walker's _The Temple of My Familiar_
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 16:48:07 -0400 
From: "Jonathan R. Ferro" <jf41+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Fictitious Fiction
	<3842@randvax.rand.org>

How about fictitious non-fiction?  While reading "Foucault's Pendulum" I
wondered regularly how many of the items the editors referred to were
real.  Has anyone found any that Eco made up?

-- Jon Ferro               Einsprachigkeit ist heilbar
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: karen@angelo.amd.com (Karen Black)
Subject: Re: Golding's _The Spire_ query
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Santa Clara, CA
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 05:49:33 GMT


Edith Pargeter (sp?), who wrote the Brother Cadfael mysteries under the 
name Ellis Peters, wrote a trilogy about a young man who ran away from 
his baronial family to become a mason.  The first book, as I recall, was
_The Heaven Tree_.  Well worth tracking down.

Karen Black
From: "eliot gelwan" <eliot.gelwan@channel1.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: fictitious fiction
Date: 5 Oct 92 05:10:45 EST
Reply-To: "eliot gelwan" <eliot.gelwan@channel1.com>
Distribution: rec
Organization: Channel 1 Communications

HP Lovecraft often referred to a fictitious work, _The
Necronomicon_, in his opus. Other authors, e.g. Robert Chambers,
in _The King in Yellow_, also referred to it. Chambers may have
actually preceded Lovecraft, I'm not sure.




                   |
...eliot          -*-              Postlink: ->CHANNEL1 [R/O okay]
                   |               Internet: eliot.gelwan@channel1.com

---
                            [in Brookline MA 10:18 pm, Sunday 10/04/92]
--
Channel 1 (R)   Cambridge, MA
From: crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Three new books
Date: 1 Oct 92 19:51:47 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <1992Oct1.191002.10539@morrow.stanford.edu> francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir) writes:

>	*English Music* a new novel by Peter Ackroyd. Alfred Knopf $23
>	What can I say? The author of *Chatterton* is, as always, complex
>	and mindless of any distinction between fiction and not. There
>	are paranormal aspects to this book....


I didn't know he had anything new out.  Wonderful!  "Chatterton" was one
of those books that sticks with you; I'm looking forward to reading this
one now, too.

Thanks for the tip.

-- 
Lauren Crawford  //  crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: sammy@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (Sammy)
Subject: Re: Dashiell Hammett
Organization: The Comp Center
Distribution: na
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 02:08:37 GMT
Keywords: Red Harvest

In article <Oct.2.20.50.48.1992.27706@gandalf.rutgers.edu> patricka@gandalf.rutgers.edu (Patrick Anderson) writes:
>
>In Red Harvest, the character Dan Rolff is referred to as a "lunger".
>What does this mean?
> 
>Love,
>Xenu
> 
>"Ronald Reagan: a triumph of the embalmer's art." - Gore Vidal

I believe it refers to someone with a lung disease, such as TB,
or possibly from smoking too much - it brings to my mind a picture
of someone constantly coughing and hacking.


-- 
Sammy=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The enemy of women...is not men, just as the enemy of blacks is not whites.
The enemy is "the tyranny of the dull mind." Carol S. Pearson, _The Hero Within_ 
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: fi@grebyn.com (Fiona Webster)
Subject: Re: Women in horror (was Re: Lady mystery writers ...)
Organization: Grebyn Timesharing
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 13:19:18 GMT

Peter David Cupit writes:
>Yes and what about Anne Rice,  one of my favorite authors.

Another woman writer who does sexy vampires with at least a modicum
of prose flair, is Nancy Collins.  Try _Sunglasses_After_Dark_.

							--fi
From: csedlack@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu (Christopher Sedlack)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Kafka's "Metamorphasis"
Date: 2 Oct 92 19:04:36 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.BvICzq.39x
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

I've read "The Metamorphosis" a number of times, and we have to keep in mind
a lot of things when we interpret it.

1) Gregor Samsa did pretty much the same thing day in, day out, for many years,
so long, in fact, that he was starting to become controlled by his daily habits
and routines.  More like an animal than a human in many ways.

2) Industrial societies have a tendency to nourish bureacracy, and lessen or
degrade the value of the individual.  It will, at times, make one feel as 
insignificant as an insect.

3) (I just thought of this one) Gregor works hard all day to provide for his
parents and sister (who do not work).  In this respect, Gregor is somewhat like
a worker ant or bee who provides food for the entire hive/nest.

Just my miscellaneous thoughts,

Chris Sedlack
csedlack@imsa.edu
csedlack@uiuc.edu

The sigless wonder
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: jciliber@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Jon Ciliberto)
Subject: Edward Hamilton Bookseller
Organization: University of Hawaii
Distribution: rec.arts.books
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 12:22:11 GMT

Many people have responded to my post asking about the service of Edward Ham-
ilton, a mail order remainder bookseller. All expressed praise of the concern.
With that surety, i mailed off an order today. thanks for all kind advice.    

--
Don't be a slyboots           |					  Jon Ciliberto
Cunning, shrewd, a rogue      |			jciliber@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.edu
Don't be a shyboots,          |________________________________________________
Nobody likes a slyboots.   - "Things Not to Be", Steve Martin
From: crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Books in the time of school
Date: 5 Oct 92 15:05:49 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania


In article <1992Oct3.175258.25914@cactus.org> kate@cactus.org (Katherine M. Catmull) writes:
>>As for books: I have an old habit of asking people "What's the book
>>that got you through high school?"--you know, the book that
>>kept you going, made you strong; that you re-read when in need of bucking up,
>>perhaps even returned to in college like a teddy bear once in a
>>while, maybe even occasionally now . . .


I don't think there was any one book that "got me through" high school ...
the only thing that really helped was the certainty that all things must
pass, including high school.  The book that had the greatest impact,
however, was "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" by Annie Dillard.  Close behind it:
"In the Beginning" by Chaim Potok.




-- 
Lauren Crawford  //  crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu