HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Books on Disc
Date: 4 Sep 92 17:39:07 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)

drm@esl.com:
>Walnut Creek CDROM is selling a disc choc full 'o books for only  
>$39.95, plus $5 shipping and whatever taxes.  Everybody from  
>Aeschylus to Yeats, Bulwer-Lytton to Wilde, Austen to Tolstoy.  Over  
>140 authors in all...

I've seen ads for collections of this sort.  They might actually be
worth it, depending on how good the accompanying software is, if you
do frequent lookups, word counts, etc.  But for reading?  Can you
imagine having to read these books from a computer monitor?

-----
Dani Zweig
dani@netcom.com

   God helpe the man so wrapt in Errours endless traine  -- Edmund Spenser
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: Unreliable narrator in "Pale Fire"
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 20:48:52 GMT

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*?

As Martin Amis points out in his essay on LOLITA in the newest issue
of THE ATLANTIC, Nabokov often uses unreliable narrators. In general,
the way unreliable narrators work in fiction is by telling the
*literal* truth as to people and events they actually witness, but falsely
*interpreting* what they witness. In PALE FIRE, one part of Charles
Kinbote's interpretational scheme has to do with his being the exiled king
of Zembla; another has to do with his friendship with John Shade.
The first part may or may not be delusional (we never find out), but the
second part almost certainly is. Even so, Kinbote is more or less reliable
as to the basic facts (sans interpretation) of what he witnesses and
describes in the notes.


--Mike



-- 
Mike Godwin,    |"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact 
mnemonic@eff.org| of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, 
(617) 864-0665  | both are transformed."
EFF, Cambridge  |                           --Carl Jung 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,soc.history
From: peterd@polari.online.com
Subject: Re: History for Valley gals
Organization: Seattle Online Public Access Unix.  (206) 328-4944 (all lines telebit-equipped)
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 15:39:17 GMT

Could who ever posted the original "Treatise" please
send me a copy.

I have been working on my own "True History" being
titled (tenatively) : Everything you know is wrong;
being the true history of Imperial America.

On a totally different note: has anyone else read
Sobel's "For want of a Nail ..." which purports to be a
textbook for a survey course on North American History
with the slight detail that the American Revolution failed.

Very interesting.

cordially
peterd

-- 
semi working address: peterd@polari.online.com
If this shows up twice, then there was a Segmentation Fault again.
registers around 2.3 on the richtor scale.
Without a plan you have chaos. With a plan you have flexibility.
-- 
semi working address: peterd@polari.online.com
If this shows up twice, then there was a Segmentation Fault again.
registers around 2.3 on the richtor scale.
Without a plan you have chaos. With a plan you have flexibility.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: stefan@leland.Stanford.EDU (Stefan Michalowski)
Subject: Re: A Biog of Captain James Cook
Keywords: Cook, James
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 92 21:15:20 GMT

In article <1992Sep2.195258.14862@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu> gersh@aplpy.jhuapl.edu (John R. Gersh) writes:
>
>One book that I _have_ read, and enjoyed very much, is Alan Villiers, 
>Captain James Cook, Scribners, 1967. This one reads almost like a
>Hornblower novel.
>
>Villiers, by the way, is a good candidate for the recent sea stories
>thread. While not fiction, some of his books go a long way to
>providing the salty fix that some readers want...

Villiers' autobiography "The Set of the Sails" is well worth reading,
as are his accounts of four voyages in square-rigged ships:
"By Way of Cape Horn" (in Grace Harwar), "Falmouth for Orders"
(in Herzogin Cecile?), "Grain Race" (in Parma, of which he was part
owner) and "The Cruise of the Conrad" (the ship is preserved at Mystic).

He also published a collection of photographs, "The Last Windships".


Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: msmorris@watsci.waterloo.edu (Mike Morris)
Subject: Re: Wordstruck
Organization: University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 18:16:28 GMT

                                Tuesday, the 25th of August, 1992

Joan Zimmerman asks:
  Mike, do you by any chance own a scanner? Or do I simply find typing,
  particularly when transcribing, to be much more onerous than you appear to
  find it? I can only read, and marvel ...

Well, in this case, I felt I wanted to suggest the connection
without further editorial comment (i.e. without listing or
editorially focussing on the connections to _The Name of the Rose_
that I think are there) because I wanted to see if anyone else
sees the same. That (and because I found connections in
every paragraph) is why I didn't edit it.

It's probably quite illegal here, by the way. As far as I understand
it, even copying a graph from a textbook into one's lecture notes,
or a single sentence from a novel into one's commonplace book,
is now a violation of copyright law in Canada. The Parliament, as it's
been explained to me, simply forgot to tack on reasonable exceptions
for non-profit or personal or educational use. You may think of
my long typing as a kind of protest.

I will take the opportunity to apologize, though, that I ended
up with so many typos. I usually prepare a file separately, then
load it into my post, then check it over one last time for errors.
This time I accidently told the server to post it where I had meant
to edit, and it got away from me unpolished.

                Mike Morris
          (msmorris@watsci.uwaterloo.ca)
From: lnh@soliton.physics.arizona.edu (sometimes a Wombat)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Poetry Suggestion
Date: 2 Sep 92 16:58:56 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Society for the Appreciation of Janni Lee Simner

"Invictus" by Willian Ernst Henley doens't suit my tastes, but it fits
your bill or requirements, mostly.

	Larry "Nose to the Whittier" Hammer 
--

                                \  "The work is rather too light, and bright,
LNH@albert.physics.arizona.edu   \  and sparkling; it wants ... a long chapter
The insane don't need disclaimers \ of solemn specious nonsense." --Jane Austen
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: stefan@leland.Stanford.EDU (Stefan Michalowski)
Subject: Re: Sea Stories
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 92 19:16:02 GMT

In article <5abg02Yh20ks01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> jjh00@OUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Joel J. Hanes) writes:
>
>My copy of _An_Oxford_Companion_To_Ships_And_The_Sea_
>has greatly added to my understanding and enjoyment of
>nearly all wooden-ships sea stories.
>...


Another valuable reference, much more detailed, beautifully illustrated,
and (mirabile dictu) in print:

  
AUTHOR:   Harland, John (John H.) 
TITLE:    Seamanship in the age of sail : an account of the shiphandling of the 
            sailing man-of-war, 1600-1860, based on contemporary sources / John 
            Harland ; illustrated by Mark Myers. 
          Seamanship. 
IMPRINT:  London : Conway Maritime Press, c1984. 
          320 p. : ill. ; 31 cm.
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: ENTROPY & IRONY
Date: 26 Aug 92 23:36:30 GMT
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org

In article <33bnf2l.richh@netcom.com> richh@netcom.com (richh) writes:
>
>All right, *you* come up with a better title for a biography of 
>Thomas Pynchon.

GRAVITY'S RIMBAUD.


--Mike




-- 
Mike Godwin,    |"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact 
mnemonic@eff.org| of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, 
(617) 864-0665  | both are transformed."
EFF, Cambridge  |                           --Carl Jung 
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:15379 soc.culture.british:12038
From: ed@wente.llnl.gov (Ed Suranyi)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Why I read the Economist
Date: 1 Sep 92 17:26:55 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.books
Organization: UC Davis Dept of Applied Science at LLNL

What about those of us who read Time, Newsweek, AND the Economist,
and enjoy all three of them, for different reasons?

The Economist has more of a hard news slant, and, as others have
said, it often covers international news better than the others.
But I find its articles often much too short.  When I'm particularly
interested in a topic, the Economist's typical couple of columns
isn't enough for me.

When their cover stories happen to be something I'm interested in,
I love Time and Newsweek's many page long articles.  For instance,
not long ago Time had a cover story on an expose of Scientology that
had me saying, "It's about time someone wrote about this in a major
magazine."  Another cover story that had me in tears was Newsweek's
on the rise of anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe.

Their maps, diagrams, and charts are much better than the
ones in the Economist, usually.  I'm also not ashamed to admit
that I like the color photography.  For years I had only
a black and white TV set, so these newsmagazines were the
only way for me to get color pictures of the major news events.

I even like the "fluff" articles that so many of you object to.
For instance, I'm a fan of Jody Foster, so I was glad when Time
put her on the cover not long ago.  A lot of the magazines are
just plain more fun than The Economist.

The Economist does tend to have better writing than Time or
Newsweek, though.

Ed
ed@wente.llnl.gov

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: m13079@mwunix (Mary Anne Walters)
Subject: New Hitchhiker's Guide installment
Organization: MITRE Corporation, McLean VA
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 19:08:31 GMT


I just read Douglas Adams' next installment in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy series is due out in October.

Called _Mostly Harmless_, it continues the saga of Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect,
and the Vogon's attemt to steal the powerful new Hitchhiker's Guide (which,
BTW, takes the shape of a mechanical talking bird).

What else has anyone heard about this new book?  Anything?       

--
--Mary Anne  
"What we have once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all
that we love deeply becomes a part of us."  Helen Keller
                                                 [for Alexander]
From: crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Amy Tan
Date: 1 Sep 92 15:16:50 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <1SEP199208295364@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov> calvo@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Sherri Calvo) writes:
>
>Good lists! An addition I'd suggest would be "The Joy Luck Club", by 
>Amy Tan. Reading this book prevented me from accomplishing much else 
>this past weekend. "The Joy Luck Club" was Amy Tan's first novel; 
>I believe she has had another published since. Has anyone read it?

I read "The Kitchen God's Wife" last year.  I liked the "Joy Luck Club"
better, mainly because the latter is a much more lighthearted book.  The
"Wife" is heavily autobiographical and also wonderful, just very sad at
times.  It's primarily about Tan's mother (somewhat fictionalized, but
not much) and her life in China.  The mother/daughter stuff is still
great, but there's little emphasis on the daughter this time.  It's
a fascinating book and a quick read.  I recommend it highly, but not
if you're depressed.



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

I believe we are on the irreversible trend toward more freedom and
democracy -- but that could change.   -- J. Danforth Quayle  
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:15052 rec.arts.movies:25732
From: proberts@informix.com (Paul Roberts)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.arts.movies
Subject: "The Whistle Blower" plagiarizes "Tinker Tailor ..."?
Date: 25 Aug 92 17:40:31 GMT
Organization: Informix Software, Inc.
Originator: proberts@woof

I saw "The Whistle Blower" (Michael Caine) last night. One thing that
struck me was that when the Soviet spy makes his "why I did it" confession
at the end, he does it in almost exactly the same words as does John Le
Carre's Soviet mole (name withheld for the benefit of those who still
have the future pleasure of reading this superlative spy book).

The credits said "Screenplay by <someone I've never heard of>" and
"based on a book by <someone else I've never heard of>". So what I
wonder is, how do they get away with this? Do they get Le Carre's
permission to quote 4 sentences almost verbatim out of his book?

Paul
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:15351 soc.culture.british:12017
From: mmh@cs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Why I read the Economist
Date: 1 Sep 92 09:05:54 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept, QMW, University of London, UK.

>    The Economist is considered to have the world's best reporting on third
> world countries.  It is nice to read something that does not have a
> politically oriented liberal or conservative ax to grind, although The
> Economist is very conservative economically with a relentless attitude
> that free markets will solve ALL the world's economic ills.
>     Do yourself a favor--read it.

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.

Matthew Huntbach
From: deutsch+@cs.cmu.edu (Alain Deutsch)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: GOETHE or R. MUSIL or T. MANN ???
Keywords: reference, Goethe, Musil, Mann
Date: 27 Aug 92 01:15:34 GMT
Followup-To: deutsch@cs.cmu.edu
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon


Hello !

I cannot remember which of these authors has written the following phrase:

	"... We should be serious in our work and frivolous for the rest ..."

I suspect, although I am not sure, that it appears in one of the following
books (which by the way are really outstanding, probably among the 10 best books
I've read so far ...):

	Thomas MANN:  "The Magic Mountain"
	GOETHE:       "The Elective Affinities"
	Robert MUSIL: "The Man without Qualities"

I have skimmed through these books, and a few citation books too, but 
without success. One solution would be of course for me to reread these
books, but I do not have time yet.

Please help !!!

----
Alain Deutsch -- School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891, USA.
Email: deutsch@cs.cmu.edu, Phone: (412) 268-6658, Fax: (412) 681-5739.
Disclaimer: despite my last name, I'm not German: I'm French !
-- 
----
Alain Deutsch -- School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891, USA.
Email: deutsch@cs.cmu.edu, Phone: (412) 268-6658, Fax: (412) 681-5739.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: jdnicoll@watyew.uwaterloo.ca (James Davis Nicoll)
Subject: Re: Sea stories 
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 14:46:45 GMT

	There is an account concerning the voyage of the 'Eppleton Hall'
(Possibly misspelled) called, if memory serves, 'The Eppleton Hall', by
an author whose name I have forgotten and which I  cannot check as my
copy is in Hard Cover Limbo. The EH  was the last paddlewheeler to cross
the Atlantic, and did so around 1970 or so (Cheapest way of transporting
the ship, I believe, was to have the ship  itself do the transporting).
Nifty book and almost certainly out of print, since interest in the Eppie
appears to  be  low these days. An engineer who served on her mentioned
that, in his opinion, the boilers were in such a bad  shape that trying to
fire them up would probably result in an  explosion*sniff* (At least as of
1988, when the conversation took place. Things may have changed since then).

								James Nicoll
From: nall@sun8.scri.fsu.edu (John Nall)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Patrick O'Brian vs Horatio Hornblower...
Date: 26 Aug 92 20:21:36 GMT
Reply-To: nall@sun8.scri.fsu.edu (John Nall)
Organization: SCRI, Florida State University

In article <1992Aug26.190127.2862@morrow.stanford.edu> greg.smith@stanford.edu (Greg Smith) writes:
>In article <10427@sun13.scri.fsu.edu>, nall@sun8.scri.fsu.edu (John Nall) writes:

   [ ... ]

>> but I thought that the O'Brien books were not even in the same
>> ballback as the Hornblower series with regard to fast-moving action,
>> vivid descriptions of life at sea, etc., etc.
>
>Well, I started out with the O'Brian books, and when I ran out of them I 
>tried Hornblower books but couldn't get the hang of them.  They seemed so thin
>by comparison.  So, you see, it works both ways.
                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

  Well, sure,  No disagreement there.  I had several e-mail messages
  to my original post from people who really like the O'Brian books.
  The two writers just have completely different styles, and what you
  don't like about the Hornblower books ("so thin by comparison") is,
  I guess, what I *do* like about them :-)  

  BTW, this thread awoke in me a great longing to read some more good sea
  stories.  Anyone got any suggestions?  While hovering around the Public
  Library shelves, trying forlornly to tell books by their covers, I thought
  how neat it would be if there were a database available into which I could
  put a subject ("sea stories") and it would spit out a list of good ones :-(

John
--
John W. Nall              | Supercomputer Computations Research Institute
nall@mailer.scri.fsu.edu  | Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306
  "Older women, make beautiful lovers - older women, they understand..."
    (song heard on radio, driving, one rainy night in Mississippi)
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:15348 rec.humor:27544 alt.folklore.urban:22610 rec.arts.sf.misc:2777
From: dos@major.panix.com (Dave O'Shea)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.humor,alt.folklore.urban,rec.arts.sf.misc
Subject: Re: Agnostics and Athiests
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 92 22:49:27 EDT
Organization: Hurts rent-a-dungeon, Inc.

mfc1493@venus.tamu.edu (Ratboy) writes:

> >>} >>>>>>>IF THIS DOESN'T STOP, IM GOING TO START THE WORST CASCADE EVER.
> >>} >>>>>>WHILE EATING THIS SLOP, I SEWED THE FIRST BROCADE BEAVER.
> >>} >>>>>BILE FITTING RIG STOP, LIE SPEWED THIRST LIVER !!!!
> >>} >>>>IF YOU MUST CONTRIBUTE, AT LEAST DELIVER...
> >>} >>>WHO MAY I ATTRIBUTE TO THIS BEASTLY SLIVER?
> >>} >>TO SPAY A LUTE IN A GREASY RIVER
> >>} >DAMN CASCADERS THINK YOU'RE SO CLEVER
> >>} I WILL NOT CASCADE; NOPE, NO, NEVER
> >>WOULD YOU, COULD YOU, ON A TRAIN?
> >WOULD YOU, COULD YOU, IN THE RAIN?
> R2-D2 ON THE BRAIN?
OY, THE PAIN!
From: janines@novell.com (Janine Schenone)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: I give up...
Date: 3 Sep 92 16:09:14 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Novell Inc., San Jose, California

In article <3jln++p@lynx.unm.edu> rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu (Roger Squires) writes:
>>
>> [quote from _Dover Beach_ by Matthew Arnold]
>
>	Judging by the number of responses, I'd say that either
>	this is an incredible piece of work that everyone but myself
>	has read many times and memorized, or it is very easy to find in
>	popular quote books.  Which is it?
>
>Roger Squires
>rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu

Like Tennyson's "Ulysses," Arnold's "Dover Beach" is one of the poems
frequently taught in literature courses at high schools and universities.

Janine Schenone
janines@novell.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir)
Subject: Summer Fall 
Organization: Stanford Exploration Project
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 18:42:16 GMT

Eugene N. Miya writes:

	Jeff Davis writes:

		A fine book of his titled (I think) *The Control of Nature*
		was a big favorite of mine a couple of years ago ...

	McPhee interviewed a close friend and climbing partner for Control.  

I was glancing through the memoirs of my Godfather, Francis Fortesque 
Urquhart, this morning and came across this selection of books that he 
recommended to his guests at The Chalet just under Mont Blanc where he
held reading parties every Summer Vacation from Oxford from 1891 through
1931.

	Doughty's *Wanderings in Arabia* or *Arabia Deserta*
	Whymper's *Scrambles in the Alps*
	Stephen Hewett's *Letters from the Front*

							Fido
From: mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: The Literary Canon
Date: 28 Aug 92 15:31:24 GMT


The sometimes cordial Michael S. Rooney sent me the following e-mail
message.  It is posted with permission.  I post it here without comment,
which I will reserve for my e-mail response.

Mark

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mark,

        I'd like to say that I agree with what your two recent posts
have said.  Frankly, I doubt I would have reacted (at least in so
provocative a manner) had you made the claim, "The Greeks are indisputably
white".  I likely would have challenged it, but you would've cleared
your semantic to "caucasian", and I would not have included a deliberate
taunt about "Afrikaaner logic".

        Yes, I'm judging Clayton on the basis of his past history.
Perhaps that was wrong, in retrospect.  Perhaps I am only hardening
his opinions about "liberals" and the like.  That too is perhaps poor
judgment.  If Internet were a clean, well-lit drawing room, no doubt
90% of the vehement arguments we read and produce would be mere mild
differences of opinion (well, maybe not;-).  But we are what we
accumulate -- and Clayton has shown almost no signs of recanting any
of his well-known opinions which I find deplorable.  Likewise, I
take the chance of becoming known as a rabid leftist "cultural
guardian" instead of the mild-mannered, witty academic that I
am ;-7.  Ah well...

        I will be kinder and gentler (or at least more patient
and dispassionate) in future.  But, as you've said, posts are
things of speed and fury, so there are no guarantees.

        You may post this letter if you like.

Cordially,

Michael S. Rooney