HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: maverick@cs.berkeley.edu (Vance Maverick)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Recommendations wanted for M.F.K.Fisher's books
Date: 24 Jul 1992 15:55:36 GMT
Organization: CS Division, UC Berkeley
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: ginkgo.cs.berkeley.edu

In article <4336@nttica.ntt.JP>, waynelui@nttica.ntt.jp (Wayne Lui) writes:
|> 
|> I'd like to know more about her work.  As a starter, wonder which 
|> book is considered to be her most representative work, and which 
|> is the most well-known etc.

I can't tell you that, but I can tell you which of her books I like the
best.  It's _The Gastronomical Me_, one of her several passes over the same
autobiographical material, largely in France.  It's available in an omnibus
called _The Art of Eating_, which is worth having, and you may still be
able to find the recent North Point Press edition of the book alone --
though I don't know what's become of it now that North Point is no more.

Lately I've enjoyed rereading _With Bold Knife and Fork_, a collection of
her New Yorker pieces, but I think _The Gastronomical Me_ is more ambitious
as a book -- and successful, up to a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion.

	Vance
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: msmorris@watsci.waterloo.edu (Mike Morris)
Subject: Re: Spoilers
Organization: University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 19:50:50 GMT


                                    Friday, the 24th of July, 1992

Susan Gere writes: 
  I've noticed that personal circumstances unrelated to a book [film, etc]
  can often color one's reaction to the work quite strongly: for instance, 
  an irrational distaste for Christianity or the author himself can spoil 
  the enjoyment of a perfectly good children's book like the Narniad.

I'm taking this to be a friendly jab at my earlier stated dislike for Narnia.

I'd like to agree with you, Susan, first of all about how personal
circumstances color our readings. I don't agree, however, that that's
so much a pity as a wonderful fact of life.

As to Narnia, I acknowledge it well possible that my distaste for the books
stems from a distaste for their allegorical content. I would not of course
agree that this distaste is in any way irrational.

On the other hand, I will plead that there are lots and lots of books with
a Christian message, with Christian thematic content, that I really
like.

I will also plead that I really like C.S. Lewis. I think _The Screwtape
Letters_ wonderful, and _Mere Christianity_, while I dissent from it, has
much to admire. But I am especially delighted by the C.S. Lewis of medieval
scholarship. I'm thinking of _The Allegory of Love_ and _The Discarded
Image_ in particular. These, I think, are thrilling books, truly crossing
multicultural boundaries in a way that so little of the fashionable
hoopla does. 

With Narnia I assume that if I had only read it as a child, I would have liked
it fine. I mentioned it just because it might be an exception to the
rule for me that more knowledge invariably increases my enjoyment of books.
        
                    Mike Morris
              (msmorris@watsci.uwaterloo.ca)                   



Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:13077 rec.humor:24543 alt.folklore.urban:19786 rec.arts.sf.misc:2214 alt.religion.kibology:3217
From: twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.humor,alt.folklore.urban,rec.arts.sf.misc,alt.religion.kibology
Subject: Re: help please, when did Isaac Asimov die?
Date: 25 Jul 92 20:08:37 GMT
Reply-To: TWChan@lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
Organization: The Hockey Factory on Comm Ave
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.12.117

George Matthew Rice writes:
 
  +>I thought that he had a Ph.D. in biochemistry and he was tenured at 
  +>Boston U (or somewhere around there).

In article <1992Jul25.164740.13967@pony.Ingres.COM> rogerl@Ingres.COM 
	(Roger Leuthner) writes:

  +Columbia University, NYC

Actually, he was professor of biochemistry at Boston University's
school of medicine.  Asimov did note though that he didn't have to
do much of anything there for many years.


Terry "Which is more than can be said for most college students" Chan
--
Internet:  TWChan@lbl.gov                           I disclaim all disclaimers.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,misc.legal
From: egnilges@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Ed Nilges)
Subject: Re: The Writings of Socrates
Originator: news@ernie.Princeton.EDU
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 15:11:11 GMT

The "writings of Socrates" was infelicitous since Plato recorded these
dialogs.  However, Derrida problematizes the entire relationship of the
two thinkers; at one and the same time, we want Socrates to be the
author of the dialogs AND we desire him not to be sullied with the act
of writing.  Sort of like the aliterate faculty heavy who has his
graduate students do his papers, or the senior corporate type who won't
learn email.  Derrida psychoanalyzes this contradictory desire as
central to Western metaphysics, and it surfaces in the net in the form
of hysterical flames re who "said" what on a written medium.  

The phrase "the writings of Socrates" is apt to be a sort of
snigger-causer on boysnet, sort of like a dirty joke in a simpler age,
for as we all know Real Men don't Write.  They speak, and their writings
are inscribed on our hearts in letters of flame.
From: sheila@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (sheila)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Asimov and the Decay of SF
Date: 31 Jul 92 13:25:12 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

In article <1992Jul28.155144.20361@ncar.ucar.edu> 
chucks@uars2.acd.ucar.edu (Chuck Smythe) writes:
>
...I suspect
>that just about all physicists think there is a single, objective truth about
>physical reality....
>			Chuck Smythe

I disagree.
-- 
stark raving sane!   sheila@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu (Roger Squires)
Subject: Re: Sayers/Marsh - 2 quick questions
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 20:17:01 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <1992Jul28.033346.14720@bohra.cpg.oz.au> jane@bohra.cpg.oz.au (Jane Lean) writes:
>
>2)  Which Sayers' novels other than "Gaudy Night" and "Busman's Honeymoon"
>have Harriet Vane in them?  "Strong Poison"?  Isn't there a fourth?
>

	It has only been a few days since I finished _Have His Carcase_.
	Wonderful stuff.  It is placed before Gaudy Night
	and after Strong Poison, and features an interesting variation
	on the locked room problem, a long exposition on breaking
	a geometrical cipher, a shot of Russian monarchical history,
	but not as much of the introspection or love interest that
	makes Gaudy Night so special.  Good read though.

>
>Jane Lean                                                 jane@bohra.cpg.oz.au

Roger Squires
rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad)
Subject: Re: Ahasuerus
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 20:16:26 GMT

In article <1992Jul27.165559.19591@morrow.stanford.edu> francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir) writes:

>Meg Worley writes:

>	While reading _Busman's Honeymoon_, I too wondered about the 
>	name Ahasuerus.  _Harper's Bible Dictionary_, kept for just 
>	such occasions, informed me that there was another Ahasuerus 
>	as well, in the Book of Daniel (obviously not Doctorow's), who 
>	was the son of Darius the Mede.  No doubt DLS was on intimate 
>	terms with him as well.

>Actually, I doubt it. Miss Sayers' High Church psoition would have made
>her as familiar with the Old Testament as any Roman Catholic in that time
>and place, which means not at all. I can be wrong, and often am, 

Dare I suggest that you are in this case?  Whatever one might say
against Sayers, she knew her Bible, Old and New Testaments alike, cold.
Look at her notes to her translation of the Divine Comedy, or her
Biblical dramas, or her lectures.  She seems to have been one of those
annoying people (:-)  ) who could recall any line she'd ever read and
give the proper citation, so I doubt a king in one of the most famous OT
stories would have fazed her much.  Indeed, I always thought that the
Dowager's cat was a Persian because of its name.

No doubt you're right about general fuzziness about the OT at that time
(that is, I have no opinion on the matter), but Sayers wasn't just
anybody when it came to reading: she was a scholar, and never let people
forget it.

Jon Alan Conrad
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: emma@Csli.Stanford.EDU (Emma Pease)
Subject: Re: Unspoken Words
Organization: Stanford University CSLI
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 17:02:58 GMT

In <1992Jul29.162100.24479@morrow.stanford.edu> francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir) writes:

>Barbara Hlavin writes:

>	As for the question of pronunciation, I have found dictionaries 
>	to be helpful. 

>Aw shucks, Baba, don't ruin the fun. In any case, who ever understood
>the hieroglyphics that indicate pronunciation? ...

Dictionaries may indicate multiple pronunciations.  

Websters on the NeXT has 

mi.as.ma \m<i^->-'az-m<e>, m<e^->-\ n, pl -mas also -ma.ta \-m<e>t-<e>\
 
which seems to indicate that either my-az-ma or me-az-ma are correct
(accent on the second syllable in both cases).  Only by Fido's
statement (or a better dictionary) would you know that the latter
pronunciation is preferred in God's own country.

One of my earliest memories of reading is of encountering the word
'knew'.  I had not yet been taught that the 'k' is silent in front of
'n' and so pronounced it 'canoe' even if it made the sentence
gibberish.  When 'know' showed up in the next sentence, I was quite
confused and had to wait a couple of days for the rest of the class to
catch up to that part of the book.

-Emma

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: R.A.B party
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Keywords: Party games?
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 23:17:13 GMT

I'm thinking I may find a way to make this party.


--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.humor,talk.religion.misc,sci.skeptic
From: sbuckley@fraser.sfu.ca (Stephen Buckley)
Subject: Re: Agnostics and Athiests
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 08:36:53 GMT

James Meritt writes:

>Stephen Buckley writes:

>}seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp) writes:
>}
>}>	Well, perhaps I'm unusual, but I put myself in the agnostic camp. I
>}>say that at the moment the evidence I see would weigh more towards the 
>}>conclusion that there is no "God", but any contrary evidence is welcome.
>}
>}  have you thought about what kind of evidence you would need to believe 
>}that god does exist?  if so, what do you require?

>Can you precisely define what "god" you are talking about?  It is rather
>difficult to provide evidence for and tests to validate an ambigious
>concept.

  i am talking about god of the bible whose fundamental characteristics
[found in the bible] are that he created the universe and us, that he will
sometime end time and history as we know it, that he is all good, holy so 
he cannot co-exist with sin, just so he must punish sin, and all loving so
he sent his son to redeem us and pay the price for our sin so we may 
return to be with him.  this is the christian god of the bible.

  does this help?

>Thank you.


 no problem.

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.humor,talk.religion.misc,sci.skeptic
From: m23364@mwunix (James Meritt)
Subject: Re: Agnostics and Athiests
Organization: Mitre Corporation, McLean VA
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 14:46:19 GMT

In article <sbuckley.712264749@sfu.ca> sbuckley@fraser.sfu.ca (Stephen Buckley) writes:
}seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp) writes:
}
}>	Well, perhaps I'm unusual, but I put myself in the agnostic camp. I
}>say that at the moment the evidence I see would weigh more towards the 
}>conclusion that there is no "God", but any contrary evidence is welcome.
}
}  have you thought about what kind of evidence you would need to believe 
}that god does exist?  if so, what do you require?

Can you precisely define what "god" you are talking about?  It is rather
difficult to provide evidence for and tests to validate an ambigious
concept.

Thank you.
From: prakash@ee.rochester.edu (Siddhartha Duttagupta)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Revisited Classics (was Re: Little Men)
Date: 23 Jul 92 21:13:09 GMT
Organization: University of Rochester Department of Electrical Engineering

>I also have re-read the Hardy Boys, particularly THE SECRET PANEL and
>THE TOWER TREASURE, but I would hardly call those classics.  Also, the
>occasional Alfred Hitchcock's Three Investigators book -- my favorites
>are THE RIDDLE OF THE DEAD MAN'S LAUGH and THE MYSTERY OF THE SCREAMING
>CLOCK (or something like that).  And then there are the Heinlein
>juveniles. . . 

At last !Another person who likes the three investigators!!Personally I 
always considered the series to be extremely well written especially
compared to hardy Boys etal.A middle class boy from India cannot relate
so well to teens flying aeroplanes and piloting speed boats/submarines.
The three investigators were intelligent and in the earlier stories at
least you felt as if you could do the same thing if only a gold-plated
Rolls chauferred by worthington came by.Anyway considering favourite titles
how could you forget "Terror castle" and the "stuttering parrot.They were
absolute beauts!By the by,there is no such title as the dead-man's laugh.
it was the "the Dead Man's Riddle."
Somebody mentioned Heidi and Winnie-ther-Pooh.Anybody read "Wind in the
willows".I love that book:Toad,badger,water-rat,otters all come alive
in a calm country setting ,but then the ferocious forest isn't too far away.
Heidi is very serene but Clara's curing seems to be an eight-day miracle.
It's okay for young adults [sic] but when the hair starts a bit graying
one can't help feeling a bit wary about goat milk as surecure for worldly
troubles..... 
Regards,Siddhartha.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: Or Shakespeare either (was: I don't like Dickens...so sue me!
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 00:19:09 GMT

In article <1992Jul25.202308.3506@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> baker@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Andrew Baker) writes about the song "Imagine," by John Lennon:

>True, but the song also attacks religion, private property, and
>nationalism -- so I couldn't figure out what else in the film the
>song was supposed to fit with.  Perhaps "nothing to kill or die
>for" was meant to apply only to those who would oppose communism
>(this was the attitude of many peace demonstrators back in the
>1960's).

This interpretation suggests to me, Andrew, that you must be in your
twenties. It's a very odd take on the Lennon song, whose lyrics don't
evoke the Khmer Rouge's activities in any normal way. Which makes me think
you don't have very clear memories of Lennon.



--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
From: Margaret Martin Gardiner <gardiner@lib.uwo.ca>
Subject: Young Adult Books
Organization: Relayed-by-Sendmail
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 02:24:10 GMT
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]
To: rec.arts.books@uwo.ca

Recently I read a book by Robert Westall called the Blitz Cat which is
about the adventures of a cat, Lord Gort, during the the Second World
War.  It was labelled as young adult reading, but after reading it I
wondered how books are labelled.  The current posts on Little Women
made me think again about classifiying books as young adult.  Does
anyone know how it is decided where to place a book,e.g. for children,
yount adults, adult?  The Westall books are really interesting and 
certainly pose a lot of questions on serious issues for a young
person.  It is quite different from the pap I read when twelve years
old.  Most of his books have won awards.  For anyone who is interested
titles are:
	The Machine Gunners - highly recommended
	The Wind Eye
	The Devil on the Road 
	Fathom Five
	The Scarecrows
	Break of Dark
	The Haunting of Chas McGill
Robert Westall is also a keen observer of cats and so these usually
appear somewhere in the stories.  Anyone who is a cat lover will enjoy his
descriptions of cats.

Margaret
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: scm@harvee.UUCP (S. Mudgett aka little gator)
Subject: Re: help please, when did Isaac Asimov die?
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.arts.sf.misc,rec.humor,alt.folklore.urban,alt.religion.kibology
Date: 23 Jul 92 07:21:30 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: gators 'r us
X-Version: Rodney's UUCP modules 02/11/90 V1.18


In article <1992Jul22.191303.20390@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com> billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com
(bill nelson) writes:

> I would not say that he was an atheist.
you wouldn't, but he did.


little "isaac asimov made a pass at my husband once" gator
--
-- little gator aka S. Mudgett     email: scm@harvee.uucp
-- friend of a gator is a friend of mine
From: jane@bohra.cpg.oz.au (Jane Lean)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Sayers/Marsh - 2 quick questions
Date: 28 Jul 92 03:33:46 GMT
Organization: Computer Power Software

Hi folks, 

Two quick questions I'm sure someone can enlighten me on:

1)  What is the title of the second Ngaio Marsh with Peregrine Jay in it?
Not "Death at the Dolphin", but a second.  I think it revolves around a
performance of Macbeth, but I could be deluding myself here.

2)  Which Sayers' novels other than "Gaudy Night" and "Busman's Honeymoon"
have Harriet Vane in them?  "Strong Poison"?  Isn't there a fourth?


Thanks,
Jane

-- 
Jane Lean                                                 jane@bohra.cpg.oz.au
CP Software Export Pty Ltd                               Phone:  +61-3-8230213
ACN 006 640 133                          "Don't you feel some days you want to 
(A Division of the Computer Power Group)  start again?"        -- Falling Joys
From: nevins@husc.harvard.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: philip k. dick
Date: 31 Jul 92 08:45:41 GMT
Organization: Yale CS Mail/News Gateway

thanks for the (quick!) reply.  my understanding is that his books REALLY
vary in quality--it's my guess that Vintage is only reprinting the good
ones (i.e. the "respectable" PDK books that a scholar who likes to dabble
in pop culture (quite the hip thing for post-modernist academics to do these
days--problem is, most of them don't know a damn thing about the pop culture
that they attempt to write about) wouldn't be embarassed to have on his/her
bookshelf.  Note the lack of traditional s-f cover illustrations (i.e.
compare other earlier editions!).
	Dick's main vision seems to be the disintegration of reality, and
extreme paranoia--and these he does quite well in _Flow My Tears, The Policeman
Said_--the style isn't brilliant, but the ideas are compelling.  I enjoyed
it well enough.  If you like this sort of thing, I strongly recommend
Stanislaw Lem's _Memoirs Found in A Bathtub_--I don't know what Lem
"intended" (oops, we're not supposed to write about authorial intent anymore,
are we?), but the thing reads to me as a brilliant and maddening essay on
the inability to really _understand_ anything; it's also a neat illustration
of many poststructuralist ideas about the indeterminacy of meaning in texts,
and the difficulties ("problematics") inherent in any attempt at interpretation.
Nifty thing is, the frame of the story actually *is* the finding of a text.

Best
Mark
From: rmg3@grebyn.com (Robert Grumbine)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: rec.arts.books.political
Summary: Time for a new group?
Date: 31 Jul 92 04:16:34 GMT
Organization: Rarely


  In reading through the messages that proliferated (and killing off
many strains), I've reached the conclusion that it is time to consider
establishing a rec.arts.books.political. 

  The strains which prompted me do appear (from headers at least) to
have some connection to books, so I can't really favor utter banishment.
On the other hand, political books (as opposed to the rest) and their
discussion fluently run in courses that I'm not interested in.  The
volume of such material seems to be always nonzero, and at times
extreme. There won't always be a clear division, but then there never
is.  On the other hand, cross posts from talk.politics clearly belong
in r.a.b.politics rather than r.a.b.  It is this category that I'm
mostly thinking of. 

  I (of course) don't have the resources to run an official vote, but
do have the guidelines if someone else is interested.  In the mean time,
comments?

Bob Grumbine
rmg3@grebyn.com
From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Or Shakespeare either (was: I don't like Dickens...so sue me!
Date: 24 Jul 92 21:45:45 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA

In article <64160@hydra.gatech.EDU>, barclay@RAIL9000.gatech.edu (Barclay Blanchard) writes:
> >>SubGenius writes:
> >I dispair that our educational system is educating its students.
> ....
> >This young (had to be a freshman) lad a sitting a ways in front of me raises
> >his hand, the prof. recognises the gesture and takes the young man's question, 
> >"What's a Nazi?"
> >
> >And this pup is in *college*, mates.
> 
> A few years back at IBM (where I co-op), one young conservative said the 80's
> were nice because Lennon died.  (aargh) Another thought he meant Lenin.
> 
> Barclay Elizabeth Blanchard    barclay@rail9000@gatech.edu

I'm kind of mystified why anone would find John Lennon's death a
virtue.  I can see why someone might not see it as the end of
Western Civilization (as some people I remember viewed it), but
John Lennon was not a particularly effective spokesman for the
left.

Ignorance is collegiate story: a friend of mine, a traditional
aged college student (unlike me) was talking to a classmate before
biology started.  The classmate (born and educated in the U.S.) 
mentioned that she had been amazed at the things she found in her
American history text: "Did you know we had a Civil War?"

I suppose if Ice-T made a rap music video about it, and MTV ran
it, there might be hope for the next generation to at least have
a superficial knowledge -- instead of none at all.

"Kill Your Television," sounds better and better.
-- 
Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid}!optilink!cramer  My opinions, all mine!
"Well, maybe the Holocaust was right *for that culture*." -- a moral relativist
with whom I work.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books