From: sheilah@wam.umd.edu (Danny-Boy)
Subject: Ted Mooney Again
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 19:55:07 GMT

I cannot find the article where Larry Hammer decides to mention
that he did not like -Easy Travel to Other Planets-. It was a long
time ago for him, so he does not give specific examples.

I will list some things I liked about the book. If you don't want
to read paragraphs from a book you havn't read, then do not finish
this article.

"	In the parking lot, Melissa looked at Jeffrey accross the top
of the car, a BMW the color of baby aspirin, and said, 'I want to get
in back first.'

		USE OF THE RAY GUN
Melissa points her right fore finger at the BMW, whose color has always
caused her acute distress. The sunlight seems so feeble up here, she thinks.
She aims carefully and fires. Everything, including the BMW, turns blue."

I like this, throwing out the rest of the book. I don't care if the
langauge is good or not. I like the idea of non-corpereal things affecting
a persons physical condition - this book has information sickness,
a physical illness. (nevermind that information is not non-corpereal -
so I've picked the wrong word. so what.):

"		A CASE OF INFORMATION SICKNESS

	On his way to Diego's, Jeffrey discovers a woman harmed by information
excess. ..."

I like that Melissa feels powerless and points her finger.

I like the question and answer session in this part of the book

"		WOMAN AND DOLPHIN SET UP
	HOUSEKEEPING IN ATTEMPT TO BRIDGE
	LANGUAGE GAP; PROJECT TERMED
	"GROUNDBREAKING" BY SCIENTISTT,
	FURTHER RESEARCH EXPECTED
[Jeffrey is reading over Melissa's shoulder, etc etc]

...
Q.: Do you believe that, at some point in the future, full two-waycommunication
between man and dolphin will be possible?
[and so forth, interview questions]
Q.: Are you hopeful?
A.: [silence] Perhaps if you rephrased the question...
Q.: When I was quite young, I don't know, maybe three or so, I would
play in the living room while my mother wrote long letters to her father, who 
lived in another part of the country. She always typed these letters, and
watching her, i noticed that her thumb would hit the bar at the
bottom of the keyboard more often than her fingers hit any other single
key. So I asked what letter it was, and she said, "It's a space," and I said,
"A space letter?" and she, thinking this was baby talk, said, "Yes," "Can
I see?" I asked, but when she put me up on her lap and struck the bar, I 
of course saw nothing because I was looking for a letter--a sign from
other space. She asked me if I saw, and embarrassed that I hadn't, I said
yes, and went back to my toys, thinking how complicated outer space
must be.
  A.: Are you hopeful?
  Q.: Someday we will be dead but not now.
  A.: Did he tell you he had been speaking to the "Times" when you talked to him
on the phone yesterday?

	"Of course not," Melissa said, throwing the paper down...[etc]"


I also like it when Ted Mooney numbers his writing. I can remember two
scenes, these are when Kirk, Jeffrey's brother is parachuting. He may
number the scenes to show how the chronology feels long. That not particularly
likable to me, 
I like numbering things that are related in ways one would not notice unless I
forced one to by numbering them. Actually, Ted Mooney does do this when
he happens to throw in two paragraphs from "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner"
into the sequence where Kirk is falling. 

(I like saying "happens to throw in" instead of merely "throws in" even
though "throws in" is nicer. It sounds like an accident. I like saying
"I have only read the first poem" to mean "only read" and not "only the
first poem" - it is more interesting to me that way.)

A while back, I thought about numbers, and how my thinking was created
by reading numbers in a bible when I was young, and skipping around to
different numbers. and connecting them in my mind - (by how they sounded
pleasurable).

I like connections, and lately I like dropping things together, juxtaposition,
and saying that they are related just because they are dropped together,
and that this relationship is as significant or as strong as causality.

	and this is somewhat why I liked that Ted Mooney would title
	some of his paragraphs. It is also what I like about certain
	titles of poems. and why I do not like a title usually, unless
	it feels like this.

This whole post has not been entirely on the subject of books. Maybe
someone could suggest a book that has the things I think I like about Ted 
Mooney's book in it, and is written better? (Larry H.?)



ps. I notice I did not dwell enough in this article about the unreal
making real things happen. (this is not a good way to explain it, once
I wrote a story and someone said something about it with the idea I want.
It is having a nose a bleed beause you are suffering from information
excess, It is paralysis of speech because you are sad to see words die.
etc
-- 
I am always wrong. Don't believe me ever.
stark raving sane  sheilah@wam.umd.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,alt.president.clinton