HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: tdlg9831@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Tracey Dianne Layng)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up again.
Date: 8 Oct 92 16:02:29 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.Bvt8K7.FrC
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

In regard to a book that had good passages, but turned out to be difficult
in the end, I have chosen_Stranger in a Strange Land_ by Heinlen. I loved the
first half of the book, but then the rest of the book was so strange that it
seemed like it belonged to another book. The first part of the book held so
much promise and the last part was pure garbage.

Tracey
UIUC
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.arts.sf.misc,aus.sf,rec.railroad
From: charless@sco.COM (Charlie Stross)
Subject: Re: Whats the title/Author of this story
Organization: SCO Technical Waffle and Blurb Department
Date: Fri, 09 Oct 1992 11:02:52 GMT
Keywords: SF railways mars


In article <1992Oct7.020101.21144@cs.su.oz.au> matthew@cs.su.oz.au (Matthew Geier) writes:
> Some time ago I read a SF novel that was set on Mars and featured a
>railway system on Mars.
> I cant remember the Author or Title now , and no one I know seems to
>have heard of it.
>
> The story opens with a man 'sail boarding' across the deserts of mars,
>when he see's a 'green man' waving at him. He hops of the the sail board
>to investigate , the greem man vanishes and the wind gets the sail board
>which flys off with out him.
	:
``Desolation Road'' by Ian McDonald.

Who has also written quite a bit more good stuff, although not really
anything centred around steam engines or Mars ...

-- 
Charlie Stross aka charless@scol.sco.com ..... UNIX oriented text mangler
WARNING: The opinions voiced in the preceding electronic document are the
product of a warped mind. Take two before meals.
From: nall@sun8.scri.fsu.edu (John Nall)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: More Notes from the Decline
Date: 7 Oct 92 17:37:37 GMT
Reply-To: nall@sun8.scri.fsu.edu (John Nall)
Organization: SCRI, Florida State University

In article <1992Oct7.150059.9543@grebyn.com> fi@grebyn.com (Fiona Webster) writes:
   ...
>Kennedys, and Ministry stickers are left untouched, but three times
>now, in a mere ten days, someone has removed the Clinton/Gore sticker.  
>
>This strikes me as an odd form of political expression.  The net effect
>is that I will drive to the local Democratic headquarters, give them
>more money, and pick up another large pile of stickers and buttons.

  So perhaps minions of the local Democratic headquarters are those
  who are taking your stickers, knowing full well that you will
  then drive to the local etc., etc. :-)  In fact, you might even
  be buying your *own* stickers back!!  (A well known event when
  a hub cap gets stolen locally, and one goes down to the place
  which sells used hubcaps ...)
>
>I know, don't tell me, this belongs in some politics newsgroup...But I
>don't *know* anyone in the politics newsgroups, so I don't have the same
>sense of having gained some sympathy for my bumper sticker woes.

  Well, I was under the impression that r.a.b. *is* kind of a politics
  newsgroups, in a far-out, surrealistic sort of way.

  By the way, in this part of the country, there do not seem to be
  any bumper stickers being displayed whatsoever.  In usual years,
  they are hot and heavy, but this year either no one knows who to
  support, or else they know but are ashamed to flaunt it.  (Personally,
  I still have my original "I Go Pogo" sticker which I use over and
  over again).

>							<sigh>

  <double sigh>

>							  Fiona

John


--
John W. Nall              | Supercomputer Computations Research Institute
nall@mailer.scri.fsu.edu  | Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
   "America was largely populated by early ethnic cleansing movements
       in Europe, with England leading the way."
From: mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up again.
Date: 8 Oct 92 17:09:58 GMT


crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford) writes:
 
> "The Executioner's Song."  Couldn't get past the first few chapters.  It
> was like watching Geraldo Rivera.
 
Speaking of which (THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG, not Geraldo) are others as
amused as I am that NIKE chose Gary Gilmore's final words as their
advertising slogan?
 
Mark
 
 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: Humiliation [Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up again.]
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 22:35:48 GMT

In article <1b1oklINNd3l@agate.berkeley.edu> maverick@fir.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Vance Maverick) writes:

>You admit that you haven't read it?  What humiliation! :)
>
>The source is David Lodge -- but which one?  _Small World_?

CHANGING PLACES.


--Mike



-- 
Mike Godwin,    |"Liberty resides in the rights of that person
mnemonic@eff.org| whose views you find most odious."
(617) 864-0665  | 
EFF, Cambridge  |                           --John Stuart Mill
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: The White Man's Burd
From: ken.mason@pcb.batpad.lgb.ca.us (Ken Mason) 
Date: 6 Oct 92 17:09:00 GMT
Reply-To: ken.mason@pcb.batpad.lgb.ca.us (Ken Mason) 
Distribution: world
Organization: The Batchelor Pad PCBoard ~ Long Beach, CA ~ +1 310 494 8084

I.Oh Dougie, that's so nice of you to say so. Now will you suck my dick?

        Strangely, I somehow expected a higher level of discourse in
        this newsgroup.

        Now on to my first post here...

        I'm interested to know if there are any other fans of Philip
        Wylie here.  I just finished _Triumph_, which was a bit
        disappointing.  Phil wasn't as biting and clever as usual,
        instead ranting about mutually assured destruction long before
        it had gained its acronym of MAD.  There was some social
        commentary, but he did that much better in _The Disappearance_
        and his non-fiction.
                                                                                                                           
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: baker@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Andrew Baker)
Subject: War of the Bumperstickers (Was: More Notes from the Decline)
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 04:32:47 GMT

In article <1992Oct7.204313.6340@athena.mit.edu> kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan) writes:
>Fiona, you are apparently not alone with your bumpersticker woes. A
>recent article in either the Times or Boston Globe Sunday business
>pages chronicled the decline of the bumpersticker.  Two reasons were
>adduced: one, people won't use 'em because they're afraid the're on
>forever (not true any more, as your example proves); and two, people
>sporting bumperstickers repellant to certain cretins were finding
>their cars attacked. I am happy to report that a certain rough
>equality of opportunity still prevails as aggrieved Democrats and
>Republicans both reported vandalism.

We could try an experiment.  Put "I support Rodney King!" on 100 Democratic
cars, and "I support the L.A. Police!" on 100 Republican cars.  I
conjecture that the Republican cars would end up suffering more damage.

In any case, it seems foolish to put controversial slogans on your
car (or on your clothing); there are enough vandals (*) and other
criminals out there looking for victims, without your giving them a
reason to single you out.

(*) No offense meant to people of Vandal ancestry.  I am appalled by
all the anti-Vandal racism on USENET and in our society in general,
and I feel very strongly that we all have to work together to overcome
this bigotry if we are to build a truly multicultural society.  And
just remember: one man's vandal is another man's artist.
From: mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Baseball (was: Re: Attractiveness (was: Re: She's baaaaack)
Date: 8 Oct 92 04:04:25 GMT


 
 
This is a re-post.  The gateway I usually use doesn't seem to be passing
my articles along.  Please forgive me, if you've already seen this.
 
----------------------------------------


dougm@hal.com (Doug Moran) writes:
 
> For excellent descriptions of how the psyche of New England and the
> fortunes of the Red Sox are intertwined, try any of Roger Angell's
> articles on the subject in THE SUMMER GAME or SEASON TICKET.  (Hah, bet
> you thought I couldn't turn it back to books!)
 
Come now -- there are a lot of books which discuss the Red Sox.  One of my
favorites is THE SUMMER OF '49 -- which discusses the rivalry between the
Yankees and the Red Sox.  It concentrates on Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams.
Ted Williams was always one of my favorites (and remains the best hitter
whom I've ever seen play <thought I'd throw that in to make some of you
jealous>).  But this book also let me know just how good Joe D really was.
 
 
Mark
From: barb@zurich.ai.mit.edu (Barb Miller)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Alaska (books sought)
Date: 13 Oct 92 00:59:09 GMT
Reply-To: barb@zurich.ai.mit.edu
Organization: M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Lab.
In-reply-to: mbvg9741@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu's message of 12 Oct 92 16:21:23 GMT

In article <Bw0o3o.9rp@news.cso.uiuc.edu> mbvg9741@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (M. Vincent Busenbark ) writes:

   I may be moving to Alaska in less than a year, and would
   appreciate information about works of literature that focus 
   on life in the state, primarily among the inuit or native Alaskans.
   (I don't suppose it has to be limited to the Inuit in Alaska,
   by the way.)

First of all, congratulations.  It's a fascinating and wonderful
place, although certainly not for everyone (people seem to either love
it or hate it).

The two books that have been suggested so far, McPhee's _Coming into
the Country_ and McGinnis's _Going to Extremes_ were the two books
that I read before going there to live for a year (a little over 10
years ago), and they certainly present individual views of the place
with very different tones.  Alaskans when I was there considered each
book to be a somewhat distorted picture, but between the two of them
you'll get some idea of what you'll be encountering there.

I can suggest another book, _Two in the Far North_, by Margaret Murie,
which talks mostly about her growing up in Alaska and life there with
her husband.  The Alaska of that era has been vastly changed by the
1964 earthquake, the Pipeline, the Native Land Claims Settlement Act,
and more recently by the drop in oil prices, so the edition that I
have (bought while I was there, the book may have been further updated
since) has a few chapters dealing with the newer Alaska.  The
publisher, Alaska Northwest Press, located in Anchorage, has a number
of other books that might interest you as well.

And any potential cheechako should probably get from the library a
copy of the more famous works of the poet Robert Service.  "The
Cremation of Sam McGee" and suchlike are minor masterpieces of a genre
that people don't think too highly of these days, but familiarity with
them will expose you to a certain aspect of the spirit of the place,
particularly since you will hear stories equally as strange, presented
to you as fact.  Although on second thought, perhaps it's best to
encounter this poem for the first time as my brother did, recited by a
whitewater raft guide to fill in a quiet space between rapids, or as I
did, told by a park ranger at the end of a campfire program.  It may
go down more easily in the wilderness where it doesn't compete with
our more sophisticated entertainment mechanisms.

If it does turn out that you move there, I hope you will find Alaska
as marvelous as I did.

Barb Miller
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: rjwill6@pbsdts.sdcrc.pacbell.com (Rod Williams)
Subject: Philately (will get you nowhere)
Originator: rjwill6@pbsdts.sdcrc.pacbell.com
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Francisco
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 18:17:30 GMT


I'm sure the r.a.bble will be thrilled to hear that the
U.S. Post Office plans to issue 29-cent commemorative
stamps in October 1993, honoring some well-known books,
"Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," "Little Women," "Little
House on the Prairie" and "The Adventure of Huckleberry
Finn."
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
rod williams -=- pacific bell -=- san francisco -=- rjwill6@pacbell.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: lopresti@henson.cc.wwu.edu (lopresti robert)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Once I put this book down...G. Marx
Date: 9 Oct 92 06:04:52 GMT
Article-I.D.: henson.1992Oct9.060452.5269
Organization: Western Washington University


Has anyone in this thread mentioned Groucho's great
cover blurb for SJ Perelman's first book?

(approx:) "I was convulsed with laughter from the moment I picked up
this book to the moment I put it down.  SOmeday I intend to read it."
From: hhenderson@vax.clarku.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Baseball Books?
Date: 15 Oct 92 22:20:13 GMT
Organization: Clark University

I've spent the entire day in mourning for Doug Drabek and the Pittsburgh
Pirates, valiant in defeat.  But now I'll put my bad baseball memories
aside and look forward to the upcoming Fall Classic, in which I
expect the Torontos to beat the Braves and take the World Championship
to Canada.  (Prediction: it'll be a hard-fought seven-game battle,
but the Jays will prevail.)  After that, the grim winter.  The time
of the Hot Stove League.  The time to read many baseball books and
await the spring.

So if there are baseball fans lurking out there in the
r.a.b.ble (and I know there are some), let me ask:  What are your
favorite baseball books?  Some of mine are:

	THE BRONX ZOO by Sparky Lyle and Peter Golenbock
	THE BOYS OF SUMMER by Roger Kahn
	THE GLORY OF THEIR TIMES by Lawrence Ritter
	DOCK ELLIS: IN THE COUNTRY OF BASEBALL by Donald Hall
	SADAHARU OH: A ZEN WAY OF BASEBALL by Oh and David Falkner
	Anything by Roger Angell
	Anything by Tom Boswell

In the fiction category: the recent release RING AROUND THE BASES,
the collected baseball short stories of Ring Lardner, tops my list,
along with W.P. Kinsella's SHOELESS JOE and Michael Shaara's FOR
THE LOVE OF THE GAME.

Another question: has anyone read THE DREYFUS AFFAIR or THE BROTHERS
K yet?  Reviews of the latter make me want to avoid it, but I'll
probably wind up reading it anyway.

Heather
HHENDERSON@vax.clarku.edu
From: mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: food
Date: 8 Oct 92 04:31:40 GMT


mworley@mathcs.emory.edu (Meg Worley) writes:
 
> _Sex_in_History_, similarly excellent.
 
Sex isn't bad in the present, either.
 
Mark
From: klein@frith.egr.msu.edu (Jeffrey Klein)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: JURGEN -- James Branch Cabell
Date: 7 Oct 92 18:31:41 GMT
Organization: Michigan State University College of Stunt Piloting

I would just like to thank everyone who recommended that I read JURGEN.

It was a very good book.

-- 
Jeff Klein             | "Happily, Ral doffs his outer clothing for a
Browsing Boy of the LNH|  refreshing dip in one of the dangerous 
klein@frith.egr.msu.edu|  chemical vats." - Ty Templeton
From: wojdylo@maths.uwa.oz.au (INFIDEL)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: REWARD OF $US100 TO END FATWAH ON RUSHDIE
Date: 15 Oct 1992 04:35:08 GMT
Organization: The University of Westrn Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: madvax.maths.uwa.oz.au

msmorris@watsci.uwaterloo.ca (Mike Morris) writes:

>                                    Monday, the 12th of October, 1992

>I had skimmed over this one before, John, only really noticing it
>when it was requoted:
>  THE PARTY MAY RESORT TO WHICHEVER MEANS ARE NECESSARY TO ACHIEVE THE AIM.

>I think one possible way to achieve an end to the fatwah
>would be for the West to begin by insisting diplomatically
>that the fatwah be recanted. The West could then set a deadline
>after which it would plan to make war on Iran until
>the fatwah were withdrawn. It is not realistic
>that this could happen, since the political will isn't there,
>but I will submit that it realistically could achieve the final goal
>of getting the fatwah officially stopped. The dollar
>cost would no doubt be high, however, (more than, say, $100 per
>capita), and even if western casualties could be minimized, we
>might still end up killing 100,000 Iranians, say.

>Let me make sure I understand you, John: are you willing to
>applaud a western leader who would use such means?

>             Mike Morris
>       (msmorris@watsci.uwaterloo.ca)



Any person who claims the right to freedom of speech is dutybound to
fight for it. If the necessary means turn out to be war with Iran, then
so be it.


John Wojdylo
Melbourne, Australia
From: mworley@mathcs.emory.edu (Meg Worley)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up again.
Date: 7 Oct 92 19:43:31 GMT
Organization: Emory University, Dept of Math and CS

In article <1992Oct7.174258.3636@raven.alaska.edu>, ejo@kaja.gi.alaska.edu (Eric J. Olson) writes:
 
> I couldn't get through _Wuthering Heights_ either, but the one that
> really killed me was Kuhn's "landmark" book in science, _On the Nature
> of Scientific Revolutions_ or some such.  I was supposed to read it
> for a class; I couldn't even get through the first chapter without
> skipping paragraphs randomly.  He just drones on and on, repeating
> himself for page after page without making much of a point.

Oh no, don't tell me that!  *The Structure of Scientific Revolutions* is
next at bat in my philosophy of science class.  Here I've spent the last
month flirting with Hempel and having stare-downs with Popper, only to
be beaned brainless by Kuhn, if I'm to believe you.  Woe is me!

Rage away,

meg
 


-- 

 Meg Worley 				Internet:  mworley@mathcs.emory.edu		
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:18118 news.answers:3384
From: wismith@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (William R. Smith)
Subject: Re: argument from buoyancy (was ...from gravity)
Organization: NAS, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 92 22:57:02 GMT

John McCarthy writes:

	Apropos of another post, consider writing a description of baseball
	for a foreigner intended to help someone watching the game to
	understand what the players are trying to do and tell whether
	they are succeeding.  The foreigner should get something no matter
	how soon he stops reading.

		<<< description of baseball game deleted >>>



Excellent.  Now could someone post one for cricket.  I've never been
able to figure that out.




William Sburgfort Smith
Intel, SSD
From: nealet@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Neale Type)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Clive Barkers - imajica
Date: 14 Oct 92 16:18:18 GMT
Organization: University of Sussex

Has anybody read/reading this book got any comments about if it ok
etc.????

neale


-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neale Type , Computing Service      ///   |   * Current UK Kickoff Champion *
University of Sussex, Falmer    \\\///    |     nealet @ syma.sussex.ac.uk 
England.   BN1 9QH               \X//     |      ccfe7 @ cluster.sussex.ac.uk
From: chgs02@ccsun.strath.ac.uk ("A.Mair", Politics)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Fixing Damaged Books
Date: 16 Oct 92 13:51:42 GMT
Reply-To: chgs02@ccsun.strath.ac.uk
Organization: Strathclyde University Computer Centre.

This one is the same cure as for bad throats due to central heating : just put a bowl of water in the room, and the air in the room will absorb moisture!

Ann
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: spb0457@zeus.tamu.edu (SubGenius)
Subject: Re: Lempriere's Dictionary/Foucalt's Pendulum?
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 19:26:00 GMT

>Has anyone read Lempriere's Dictionary yet?  Comments on whether its worth the  
>reading?  Also, does anyone know of more novels along the lines of Umberto  
>Eco's Foucalt's Pendulum or The Name of the Rose?  I'm looking for some prose  
>fiction densely written by experts and chock full of allusions I only mildly  
>understand.  8-)
>Matt Cutts -- uk02914@ukpr.uky.edu     or    mdcutts@afterlife.ncsc.mil

+--------------------------------------SubG-----------------------------------+
[With imperceptable hand movements under the trenchcoat]
"Hey, leeetle boy...wanna buy a copy of _Gravity's Rainbow_?"

-or-

Try (also) _Three Trapped Tigers_ by Guilermo Cabera Infante (spelling
packaged by weight and not by volume;  some settling may have occured in
transit).








Yours etc.,





SubGenius

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: rooney@cheshire.oxy.edu (Michael Sean Rooney)
Subject: Re: Nietzsche's Heir
Organization: Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA 90041 USA.
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 21:53:17 GMT

In article <1992Oct7.003154.4890@athena.mit.edu> kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan) writes:
>	francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir) writes:
>
>	Who is the rightful heir to Nietzsche?
>
>I don't think that Nietzsche had any heirs, that he died without
>issue. While we may all be, in a sense, Nietzsche's children, I can't
>think of anyone that has brought together his particular philosophic
>sensibilities, cultural perceptions, and stylistic madness. If there
>are any unsung heirs I doubt that they are laboring in philosophy
>departments. Perhaps some mad poet in the mountains, a la Zarathustra,
>could give a new twist to Nietzche's voice. I doubt it however. 
>  
	I hereby nominate Mary Daly.  The affinities are sometimes
so strikingly different that the ineffable affirmation which rings
them into opposite sides of the same orbit sings, silently.

Cordially,

Michael S. Rooney

"As for the comment at the end regarding the creation of the world,
 this is quite irrelevant."

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan)
Subject: Re: Poisonville
Keywords: Hammett, Red Harvest, Butte
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 11:23:53 GMT

In article <1992Oct6.172528.4840@cheshire.oxy.edu>
rooney@cheshire.oxy.edu (Michael Sean Rooney) writes:

	Poisonville is Butte of Hammett's days.  At least, this is
the strongly held opinion of most Montanans I've discussed RH with.
Whoever wrote the introduction to the excerpt from RH in the Anthology
of Montanan Fiction (not the exact title) claimed it was as well.
Mock Lake...is puzzling, but could have served the story.

Cordially,

Michael S. Rooney

	Joe Gores in his _Hammett_ (1976) identifies Person(Poison)ville
as an  amalgam of Boulder, Colorado, and the Montana towns of Butte,
and Anaconda. (p.111)

Keith

--
Keith Morgan		 |I've always had a secret desire to harangue
kamorgan@athena.mit.edu  |a crowd of people for 10 hours in the
		         |sweltering heat. It's the origin of my
		         |fascination with public language.
From: amnell@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Marko Amnell)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up.
Date: 8 Oct 92 16:30:48 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

Well, surely the most unreadable `good' book in English (if one can call
it English) is _Finnegans Wake_, right?  Or else _Beowulf_.

-- 
Marko Amnell
amnell@klaava.helsinki.fi
Graduate Student in Philosophy
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:18465 talk.politics.misc:52626 ca.politics:8746
From: ljones@iti.org (Lewis Jones)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Limpopo?
Date: 16 Oct 92 10:06:42 GMT
Organization: The University of Adelaide
NNTP-Posting-Host: adelphi.itd.adelaide.edu.au

mj7633@ireland.medtronic.com (Mark Jacoby) writes:


>Could someone tell me where this is from?

>"The great, greasy, grey, green Limpopo"
...
>mark

I'm not sure, but it might be from "Just So Stories", by Rudyard Kipling.
It might even be the story about how the elephant got its trunk.

				Lewis.