From: jessec@yang.earlham.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: Diamond-hard SF
Date: 19 Nov 92 16:50:23 GMT
 <1992Nov18.165819.20554@yang.earlham.edu> <1ef1neINNdv9@agate.berkeley.edu>
Organization: Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana

In article <1ef1neINNdv9@agate.berkeley.edu>, curtis@cs.berkeley.edu 
(Curtis Yarvin) writes: 
> In article <1992Nov18.165819.20554@yang.earlham.edu> 
jessec@yang.earlham.edu writes: 
> |Now what's all this, then?
> |
> |   Curtis Yarvin (curtis@cs.berkeley.edu) writes:
> |
> |>In article <1992Nov17.130534.20533@yang.earlham.edu> 
> |>jessec@yang.earlham.edu writes: 
> |>>
> |>>   More importantly: why read fiction if it can't tell you anything about 
> |>>what it is to be human? To be alive?
> |>
> |>I don't know about you, Jesse, but I already have a pretty good feeling
> |>of what it is to be alive.
> |
> |We all *live* it, but what *is* it and what on earth does it mean?
> 
> Methinks it might be profitable, before continuing into further
> realms of cosmological netherspace, to restrain our ambitions
> and ask what on earth _you_ mean.

   Huh? You ask for definitions of "is" and "mean", and I wonder why you 
need them.  Seems like a pretty legible sentence to me, and it's not like 
I'm the first to ask these questions more or less in that form.

> But not to fear.  Once we have some nice context-sensitive
> definitions for "is" and "mean" we shall not stint from our
> exploration into these dark lands, where every sophomore with a
> Kant monkey and a black-sweater fetish has gone before.  Nay we
> shall plunge boldly ahead.  And if the abyss doth gaze into us
> we shall not hesitate to flip it a penny and mutter, "Get a
> job, buster."

   Hmm, that's cool.  Dismiss all philosophy and philosophical attempts to 
introspect as pretentious and not worthwhile!  Gee!  Guess it's that simple.

[my comments about Gibson, Curtis' clever riposte, my befuddled 
elucidation all deleted for space]
> Bwhaha.  Let's have a big "Bwahaha," from the crowd.  Thank
> you, folks.  Thank you.  And now, a show of hands.  Could we
> have a show of hands?  All those who think the best replacement
> for one heap of trendy moose offal is another heap of trendy
> moose offal, say "Aye" and give me five fingers high.  Ready...
> now!

   Once again, another conversation-stopping proposition: It's all "trendy 
moose offal"!  Literature, art, intellectual activity of any sort, who 
cares? Never mind that this completely ignores the case I tried to make 
for my points.  This is truly cynicism at its best.  Congratulations.

> "AYE!"
> 
> And we have a winner!  The people have spoken, and I'm sorry to
> say, Jesse, that you are absolutely right and I'm completely
> utterly wrong not to mention stinking drunk and an outright
> disgrace to the human race.

   Oh, give me a break...

   Well, I see you don't have anything substantial to say to me, and are 
merely diddling yourself with text. I'm rather frustrated at realizing 
this, because I do like to have real discussions of ideas with people-- 
imagine that, eh?-- and this has turned out to not to be one.  I don't 
think I'm necessarily "absolutely right" or that anyone arguing against me 
is "completely utterly wrong", but it would be nice if you'd actually 
addressed what I said and responded to it instead of concentrating on how 
hilarious you think you are.  Thanks for wasting my time.  If you get over 
yourself at some point and actually want to talk lit, e-mail me or 
something.


   --Jesse.

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>From:	YANG::YANNB        24-MAY-1992 02:16:59.50
>To:	JESSEC
>CC:	
>Subj:	space
>
>	Hey Jesse, I love your response to, " Making Love in Space "!  
>Really good!  Your right, I think that gay and lesbian sex would be much 
>more suitable in a zero-gravity situation.  Heterosexuals wouldn't make 
>the "grade".  What if a woman got pregnant?  So much for babies in the 
>form as they should be.  They would be small fleshy blobs forming in the 
>womb of the mother.  At birth, they would appear frightening to any human. 
>Birth in zero-gravity!!  What a mess that would be!!!  Blobs, blobs, 
>blobs!!  Everywhere!  I think that gay and lesbian sex should be mandatory 
>in space. (Provided that there be sex in space in the first place.)  Sex 
>in space!!!  Sex in space!!!  I swear, thats all the guys at NASA think 
>about!!  Sex in space!

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