HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: morse@math.psu.edu (Robert Morse)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Anybody read these trash books?
Date: 28 Aug 92 00:13:03 GMT
Reply-To: morse@math.psu.edu
Organization: Dept. of Mathematics, Penn State University

In article 6526@math.ucla.edu, dstein@dione.math.ucla.edu (David Stein) writes:
>In article <1992Aug24.151132.23421@gvl.unisys.com>,
>rafem@gvlf7-e.gvl.unisys.com (Ralph Marrone) writes:
> 
>|> My copy of _Solaris_ is a French-to-English translation.  Since I'm
>|> assuming that Lem wrote _Solaris_ in Polish, has a Polish-to-English 
>|> translation ever been published? 
>
>   I believe that is the only translation available in English.
>   Which is a great shame.  If anyone out there is independently
>   wealthy, please contact Michael Kandel (the awesome translater
>   of most of Lem work) and publish _his_ version.
>
>   Hell, you might even make money on a new translation of Solaris.
>   Maybe there's legal problems with retranslating it.
>
> - David
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>I'm not a native speaker of English, so I'm not sure what I wrote.
>Flames will be ignored unless you post them in perfect Czech.
>================================ - David (the metamathician) - ===


Michael Kandel IS truely awesome.  Thanks to him, Stanislaw Lem's
books read as if they were written in English, if one ignores only
the peculiar names.  Astounding, brilliant stuff, complete with
word play and so forth.  I have no idea how this was achieved, but
am certainly grateful for the result.
From: quinn@diku.dk (Sebastian Hammer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Sea Stories
Date: 2 Sep 92 10:34:46 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, U of Copenhagen

"The Shipkiller" by Justin Scott. An amazing story.
From: danoc@earlybird.Eng.Sun.COM (Dan O'Connell [CONTRACTOR])
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Worthwhile newspapers
Date: 2 Sep 1992 17:20:22 GMT
Organization: Subvert the Dominant Paradigm, Inc.
Distribution: na
NNTP-Posting-Host: earlybird
Keywords: Washington Post

(Joel J. Hanes) writes:

 Anyway, here in the Bay Area, I read the San Francisco Chronicle
 every day, supplemented with the San Jose Mercury News on the
 weekends (mostly for their Perspectives opinion section and
 for the Classifieds), and I still feel hungry, particularly
 for longer articles with detail and understanding.
 Neither paper runs much US news, and world news coverage
 is even more cursory.
 
I too have had to make do with the Merc who seem to get 
more than half their stuff from other papers.

IMO, there is really only one worthwhile newspaper:
the Washington Post. The NY Times is okay, but hey!
no comics. Once you get on a diet of the Post, everything
else leaves you hungry.

I get the WP Book World mailed to me out here in Santa
Cruz and it arrives about 3 weeks after the published
date. Invariably, a week or two later one or more of
the book reviews will show up in the Merc, sometimes
without the attribution that it was first published
in the WP.

The other paper I like is the Int'l Herald Tribune,
which is mainly the WP and the NY Times recycled
as an english-language paper distributed overseas.

Dano
From: jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Patrick O'Brien vs Horatio Hornblower...
Date: 1 Sep 92 16:29:35 GMT
Organization: AIAI, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

In article <1992Aug26.195501.9730@brtph560.bnr.ca> Paul Schroeder writes:

>First, IMHO a comparison between O'Brian and Forester is not appropriate. 
>Forester attempted (and succeeded) in writing high-quality adventure novels
>that accurately depicted the British Navy during the Napoleonic War.  O'Brian
>has attempted (also successfully IMHO) to create a literature using the same
>historical and social context.

There's probably something to this, but saying O'Brien created a
literature and Forrester didn't seems a bit much to me.  I happen
to think a comparison is appropriate, but that doesn't mean I think
all who like one will like the other.  If it was that simple, a
comparison wouldn't be needed.
From: egpv29@castle.ed.ac.uk (JHenderson)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Unreliable narrator in "Pale Fire"
Date: 30 Aug 92 12:34:44 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University

In article <1992Aug28.204852.4929@eff.org> mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin) writes:
=>In article <25288@castle.ed.ac.uk> egpv29@castle.ed.ac.uk (JHenderson) writes:
=>>I'm only about 6 months behind in catching up on this, but
=>>exactly *how* unreliable is the narrator. Is there *anything*
=>>he says that can be believed? He doesn't seem to have been
=>>a close friend of Shade's (not invited to the birthday party)
=>>and he probably told fibs about the assassination (lift in
=>>Emerald's car) - was he telling the truth about *anything*?
=>
=>[...] Even so, Kinbote is more or less reliable
=>as to the basic facts (sans interpretation) of what he witnesses and
=>describes in the notes.

This sounds reasonable - but are there sources of doubt that he reliably
reports the basic facts - I mentioned the question of whether Emerald had
given Gradus a ride - are there others?


-- 
==================================================================
-Jeremy Henderson            |  Une souris verte
 egpv29@castle.ed.ac.uk	     |  Qui courrait dans l'herbe
==================================================================
From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Why I read the Economist
Date: 2 Sep 92 20:02:46 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA

In article <dtjn98f.snow@netcom.com>, snow@netcom.com (Tim Szeliga) writes:
> In article <1992Sep1.141452.14468@eff.org> mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin) writes:
> >In article <12054@optilink.UUCP> cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes:
# ##And even by the current definition of "conservative" in America,
# ##they aren't conservative.  Note their oft-expressed feelings about
# ##gun prohibitionism.
# 
# It is a sign of the intellectual corruption of the age that the honorable term
# "conservatism" can be appropriated to disguise the advocacy of a powerful,
# lawless, aggressive and violent, a welfare state for the rich dedicated to
# a lunatic form of Keynesian economic intervention that enhances state and 
# private power while mortgaging the country's future.
# 				Noam Chomsky,  1988
# 
# ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
# Tim Szeliga	 Org: National Weather Service / Hydrologic Remote Sensing

Very true.  But keep in mind that most conservatives (I've met a
few, they aren't yet extinct) regard Bush as a liberal, and 
Reagan as questionable.


-- 
Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid}!optilink!cramer  My opinions, all mine!
Alcohol prohibition didn't work; drug prohibition doesn't work; gun
prohibition won't work.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: hhenderson@vax.clarku.edu
Subject: A Thousand Acres
Organization: Clark University
Date: 3 SEP 92 17:35:23 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this list and don't know exactly what goes on here yet,
but it looks interesting.  My name is Heather Henderson, and I
work at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. where I have a job
as a peon.  The peon's wages support me while I write fiction and
attempt to get it published.  My latest creation is a 10,000-word
story inspired by baseball and Gertrude Stein.  Anybody who's
curious, send me a message and I'll e-mail the thing to ya.
I'd like any and all comments and criticisms.  Anyway, I'm getting
off my intended subject here.  I just recently finished reading
Jane Smiley's novel "A Thousand Acres", which, I am told, won the
Pulitzer Prize.  I was extremely disappointed in it.  I was looking
forward to a big important novel about Iowa farmers, maybe sort
of Willa Catheresque, and what do I get but a shameless reworking
of "King Lear".

This is what I mean by shameless:  the forbidding father figure,
the big tough farmer, is named Laurence (as in Olivier, right?),
and his daughters are named Rose, Ginny, and -- I might get this
wrong -- Catherine?  I forget.  Something with a C, naturally.
Oh, and he has a friend, also a farmer though not quite as
successful, who gets blinded in an accident!  I could go on...
But anyway, I found this extremely annoying, even bordering
on authorial arrogance.  Does anybody else find this kind of
thing irritating?

On the bright side, there is some good phrasemaking in it,
some nice descriptions, but the whole story goes on for far
too long.  And I kept thinking, why doesn't she invent her
own characters and her own plot?  Why is she stealing (or
borrowing) someone else's?

Ah well... rantings for a rainy Worcester afternoon.

Heather
Clark University
HHENDERSON@vax.clarku.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: heath@athena.cs.uga.edu (Terrance Heath)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: The Literary Canon
Keywords: race canon
Date: 28 Aug 92 16:44:55 GMT
Organization: University of Georgia, Athens

In article <1992Aug28.040140.16062@cheshire.oxy.edu> rooney@cheshire.oxy.edu (Michael Sean Rooney) writes:
>In article <BtLF0C.EGy@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca> msmorris@watsci.waterloo.edu (Mike Morris) writes:

>>I think they haven't (warning: be damn sure of yourself before getting
>>self-righteous about this one---I have already laid down a lot of
>>qualification for what this statement *should* mean) That
>>was also my point.


Hmmm... I deleted the line just before that, which (written by someone
else) asked whether any non-whites have written great books. 

Upon reading Mike's response, I was at first taken aback until I
remembered what he said in some earlier posts.  If I were translated
the above line, I would translate it to read "Maybe they have, but
there hasn't been a sufficient passage of time for us to be sure." 

Is that close, Mike?


-- 
"Black men loving black men is THE revolutionary act!"
			-Joseph Beam_
Terrance Heath 
heath@athena.cs.uga.edu
From: dac@prolix.pub.uu.oz.au (Andrew Clayton)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Titles for Tom Maddox Biography Needed
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 11:16:39 GMT
Reply-To: munnari!labtam!eyrie!prolix!dac
FollowUp-To: rec.arts.books
Keywords: 
Organization: More like Dis~, really.

In article <9208271658.AA03359@milton.u.washington.edu>, Doug Doland writes:

> Tommy, can you hear me? Tommy, can you see me? You will, o' course, get
> final peeky-boo of the galleys, but what do think of this:
> 
>         TOM MADDOX: THE ZIT WHO MADE MEDICAL SCIENCE WEEP

And let us not forget the sequel:  HOLLOW: The vacuum behind the facade!

Dac
--
From: fuller@athena.cs.uga.edu (James P. H. Fuller)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: The Literary Canon
Date: 2 Sep 92 20:11:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: athena.1992Sep2.201157.2182
Organization: University of Georgia, Athens


sanjiva@ecrc.de (Sanjiva Prasad) writes:


> the genreal idea being that these works influenced literary forms (why else
> are Boswell and Fielding in there, for example?) 

     Boswell is there, priggish nitwit though he was, because he wrote a great
book.  The _Life of Johnson_ is WONDERFUL.  Furthermore, the ability to plagiar-
ize Dr. Johnson on a moment's notice can get you through *any* number of sticky
situations.  ("Sir, your wife, under pretense of keeping a bawdyhouse, is a
receiver of stolen goods....")

                                               -- jf
From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Why I read the Economist
Date: 2 Sep 92 22:04:34 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA

In article <jyc.715401688@Leland>, jyc@leo.Stanford.EDU (Jon Corelis) writes:
>    I seem to be the only person so far posting to this topic who lives
> in, or at least who will admit to living in, Palo Alto, and I don't see
> what all this fuss is about.  We Palo Altans have never considered
> ourselves to be above the common people.  Indeed, it is an article of
> faith with us that we should treat those who aren't fortunate enough to
> live here exactly as if they were our equals.

Except when desiring to enter a public park owned by the City of
Palo Alto.  Of course, race has nothing to do with the policy,
oh no. :-)
-- 
Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid}!optilink!cramer  My opinions, all mine!
Alcohol prohibition didn't work; drug prohibition doesn't work; gun
prohibition won't work.
From: nall@sun8.scri.fsu.edu (John Nall)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Sea stories - the Sequel...
Date: 28 Aug 92 20:18:53 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.books
Organization: SCRI, Florida State University

Well, since my plaintive request resulted in a veritable flood
of suggestions, I decided to write a few of the authors/titles
down on a piece of paper and wend my way over to the university
library and see if they had any.

Of the (short) list I had with me, the computer said only one
was on the shelf.  So I walked to that area (Soc G530 P32 etc)
to find it.  Well, I found it.  But even better, it was right
in the *middle* of a whole nest of them!  Lots of old books,
with titles like "Storm Passage," and "Desperate Voyage" and
"Around the World on the Kamchatka"!  I thumbed through a few
of them, and each of them had a picture of the author, looking
proud, at the beginning.

I thought about how each one of those dusty old books, with the
pages in some cases turning yellow, represented a lifetime 
adventure for that author.  Probably a 6' x 6 'x 4' area which
contained a universe of dreams :-)

Oh well.  Good weekend coming up.

Peace,

John
--
John W. Nall              | Supercomputer Computations Research Institute
nall@mailer.scri.fsu.edu  | Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306
  Actually, love means that you *do* have to say you're sorry, even
	 if you're really not in the least bit sorry. - (me)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,soc.culture.british
From: nickh@CS.CMU.EDU (Nick Haines)
Subject: Re: Why I read the Economist
Originator: nickh@VOILA.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
	<1992Sep1.090554.22419@dcs.qmw.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 16:50:07 GMT

In article <1992Sep1.090554.22419@dcs.qmw.ac.uk> mmh@cs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach) writes:

   I find the Economist's analyses to be very shallow, and its
   presentations badly over-simplified - it reads like it's aimed
   at the intelligent sixth-former. I suppose the only reason
   it is so valued in the USA is the lack of anything better.

Exactly. It competes over here with Time and Newsweek, both solid
examples of drool-proof journalism. American news media are all
enormously dumbed-down.

Nick
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad)
Subject: Re: Forster connected
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 16:45:05 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.155105.26957@morrow.stanford.edu> francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir) writes:

>The timing of Forster's novels may help understanding.

[timeline, ending in 1924, deleted]

>His great critical work, Aspects of the Novel (1927) and his late
>collection of essays, Abinger harvest (1936) are worth studying. 

He also collaborated on an opera libretto in 1950, based on Melville's
BILLY BUDD, for the composer Benjamin Britten.

Jon Alan Conrad
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: ccfj@hippo.ru.ac.za (F. Jacot Guillarmod)
Subject: Query: describing the condition of second hand books
Organization: Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 17:34:21 GMT

I have inherited large numbers of what appear to be valuable natural
history books, and am putting together a list describing them.
Obviously the potential price of the book depends on the condition, and
I'm looking for some guidelines on this - something a bit more
meaningful than "buggered" or "looks OK to me".  I'm aware that there
are terms such as "foxing", but am not too clear on what this
translates to in the flesh, as it were.

Any other tips on what sort of information should be included in a
list?  Other than the usual title, author, publisher, date?

-- 
  F.F. Jacot Guillarmod     PO  Box 94     \        |     ccfj@hippo.ru.ac.za
  Computing Centre       Grahamstown 6140   \      /     +27 461 22023 xt 284
  Rhodes University        South Africa      ;___*/   33 18 30 S | 26 31 45 E
From: danoc@earlybird.Eng.Sun.COM (Dan O'Connell [CONTRACTOR])
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Oinkies
Date: 3 Sep 1992 23:04:55 GMT
Organization: Subvert the Dominant Paradigm, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: earlybird

 (Matthew P Wiener) writes:

 Benjamin Hoff(?), author of THE TAO OF POOH, has now come out with THE
 TE OF PIGLET.  On the one hand, TTOPooh was centered on such a clever
 and delightful idea that it was irresistable.  On the other hand,
 Hoff's comprehension of Tao was pretty much an American New Age fake.

What's next, the CHING of Eeyore?, the Testament of Roo? 
The Concordance of Kanga? The Codex of Christopher Robin?

Dano

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: gere@umunhum.stanford.edu (Susan Gere)
Subject: The RAB-fest: really this time
Summary: the long awaited, finally here
Keywords: that does happen to be a full moon...
Organization: Stanford University 
Distribution: ba
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 92 21:01:35 GMT

Here is the plan, the plan is food wine and books.

Time:  6:00 pm
Date:  Saturday, September 12 
Place: Palo Alto  (RSVP for details)
Menu:  A loaf of bread, hb ham, cheese, seasonal fruits
	and drink by Francis --coffee by Printer's Inc, chardonnay,
	some attractive alternative. Special requirements by request.
Cost:  Donation is requested, we forsee it at $12.50 apiece.
What:  Meet those people you've seen in action here. Bring your
	favorite passage to read; not mandatory. Video by Mark
	Taranto (special early screening).

 Please excuse any previous announcements you may have seen that
had to be cancelled. This is the final word; no expiration date.

 Feel free to redistribute beyond the area to interested parties.
____________________________________________________________________
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: calvo@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Sherri Calvo)
Subject: Re: Sea Stories
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 13:39:00 GMT

In article <9208282135.AA14252@coventry.Corp.Sun.COM>, Lisa.Levine@Corp.Sun.COM (Lisa Levine) writes...
>_Dead Ned_  and  _Live and Kicking Ned_ by John Masefield. 
> 
>He has one or two other seafaring-type novels.  These are
>children's books, but as I recall, well written and based 
>(no doubt loosely, since there are pirates) on some of his 
>own experiences.

I just picked up "Captains Courageous" by Rudyard Kipling at a library 
booksale; haven't read it yet, though. In a similar vein, there's "Two 
Years Before the Mast"; I forgot who wrote this.

Generally I prefer my sea stories more contemporary and less 
belligerent; two items on my "To Read" stack are "Dove" by Robin Graham, 
and "The Boat that Wouldn't Sink" by Farley Mowat.

Sherri

Sherri Chasin Calvo
calvo@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: kschnitz@encore.com (Kevin Schnitzius)
Subject: Re: ENTROPY & IRONY
Organization: Encore Computer Corporation
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 18:16:03 GMT

reese@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:
>EVASION AND CONDEMNATION
>UNDERESTIMATION AND OBFUSCATION
>CONFABULATION AND DETESTATION

Ah, the hurricane relief effort.

FUCK YOU ANDREW.
--
mr asynchronous                                   kschnitzius@encore.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: tmaddox@netcom.com (Tom Maddox)
Subject: Re: Why I read the Economist
Date: Fri, 04 Sep 92 06:49:20 GMT
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)

In article <JMC.92Sep2113126@SAIL.Stanford.EDU> jmc@cs.Stanford.EDU writes:
>Ah, I am beginning to understand why Clayton Cramer ought not to be
>allowed to post to rec.arts.books.  The gall of the man, bringing
>into a recreational group concerned with books what actual laws
>were passed about guns in Britain in 1870 and 1921.

	Oh no, Professor McCarthy--you cannot hang on the rest of us the
whimsical (to say the least) manner of Fido, who abjures self, fact, and 
who knows what else (except an undying allegiance to public schools).  

	I mean, first the meretricious Fido hangs "pseudo-intellectual" on
all r.a.b.ers (presumably excepting his own self, if he has one), then when 
he is caught in brutal ignorance of Matters English (the arena where he has 
implicitly, at least, asserted absolute authority) and replies, in effect, 
"Falala, I'm Fido," you accuse all r.a.b.ers of being like Fido . . .

	And *that* is a bit much.  That you should want to crow about Cramer's
ascendancy over Fido, I can understand--I enjoyed it, and I think Cramer's a
tedious crackpot.  However, take up with Fido himself his intellectual
bankruptcy or, more modestly, his unwillingness to confess that he had posted
pseudo-authoritative nonsense and been caught at it.  I will bear the burden of
my own failings--moral, intellectual, and otherwise--but I see no reason to
bear Fido's.



-- 
				Tom Maddox
		    	    tmaddox@netcom.com
		   "I swear I never heard the first shot"
                Wm. Gibson, "Agrippa:  a book of the dead"
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: Paul Schroeder
Subject: Re: Patrick O'Brien vs Horatio Hornblower...
Organization: BNR
Date: Wed, 02 Sep 1992 14:05:00 GMT

In article <7420@skye.ed.ac.uk> jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton) writes:
>In article <1992Aug26.195501.9730@brtph560.bnr.ca> Paul Schroeder writes:
>
>>First, IMHO a comparison between O'Brian and Forester is not appropriate. 
>>Forester attempted (and succeeded) in writing high-quality adventure novels
>>that accurately depicted the British Navy during the Napoleonic War.  O'Brian
>>has attempted (also successfully IMHO) to create a literature using the same
>>historical and social context.
>
>There's probably something to this, but saying O'Brien created a
>literature and Forrester didn't seems a bit much to me.  I happen
>to think a comparison is appropriate, but that doesn't mean I think
>all who like one will like the other.  If it was that simple, a
>comparison wouldn't be needed.
>

A comparison is appropriate in the sense that both write about the British Navy
during the Napoleonic War.  However, their approach is different, and as to
which will be more favored by a reader depends upon what the reader is looking
for.  I think this discussion has pointed out the considerable differences
between the two, and that many readers who like one will not like the other. 
IMHO, Forester was a craftsman and a very fine one who has yet to be bettered
by his successors, e.g., Kent, Pope, etc.  Also IMHO, O'Brian is an artist and
one who is finally starting to receive the attention of serious literary
critics in England and the U.S.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.food.cooking
From: citrin@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Wayne Citrin)
Subject: Food in sea novels
Followup-To: rec.food.cooking
Reply-To: citrin@soglio.Colorado.EDU (Wayne Citrin)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 21:59:12 GMT


[Note that followups are to rec.food.cooking]

The thread on sea novels, and my reading of Patrick O'Brian's novels,
has led me to wonder about some of the dishes that people in the books
eat.  Can anyone out there describe portable soup, sea pie, figgy-dowdy,
or plum duff?  Thanks for the help.

Wayne

-----------
Wayne Citrin   citrin@soglio.colorado.edu   citrin@cs.colorado.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books