HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ptm57791@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Patrick T. Murzyn)
Subject: Re: Another DAVID EDDINGS Q & comments on ..Kell.
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 17:11:49 GMT

Hmm. You liked The Mallorean pentology, then? I dunno. I found myself quite 
disappointed. In retrospect, I find The Belgariad superior because I was just
meeting and getting to know the characters. The Mallorean simply brought the
same characters back, and took them through what was basically a recycled plot
from The Belgariad. Ce'Nedra (or however you spell that goofy name) spent the
entire Mallorean moping around, where the first series featured her fiery
personality (and yes, she was one of my favorite characters...) and her
interaction with Garion. Plus, the thing that most interested me from The 
Belgariad was Garion's discovery of sorcery, and his experiments, revelations,
etc. There was none of that in The Mallorean. Just the same old stuff over
again, without any surprises. Well, I guess I shouldn't say that, as there
WERE a couple... but basically the plot was just rehashed.


As for the comments about _The Seeress of Kell_, well, like I said, not many
surprises. I agree with the point that it seemed that Eddings simply wanted
to get the series out: "Hey, they bought up all my first books, so if I give 
them the same stuff over again, slightly disguised, they'll buy it again!"
Sad to say, I DID buy them again... Or, it was almost as if he started, 
thinking he was doing something new, then realized that he wasnt, but 
resignedly went through with it, anyway. Another possible explanation is that
he was more interested in writing his other trilogy (_The Diamond Throne_, etc,
I cant remember the name of that one) and didnt really put his heart into the
Mallorean...

Whatever the case, Eddings is still, in my opinion, a damn fine fantasy writer,
and I'll continue to read his books.


						Patrick Murzyn
						ptm57791@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
From: jespah@milton.u.washington.edu (Kathleen Hunt)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: suggestions for good fantasy/sf, mystery, for travel reading?
Date: 6 Apr 92 23:48:39 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

Hi -- I have a friend who is about to leave on a 3-month field season
in Panama.  (She's an ecologist)  She's just mentioned that she wants to
take a bunch of books along, and I'm touring the local used bookstores to
put together a collection for her.  She particularly mentioned fantasy/sf
novels -- books that don't require *too* much in-depth concentration, but
that are well-written w/decent characterization.  Books to be read by 
exhausted, muddy scientists during breaks in their work. We both recently read
Elizabeth Moon's Paksenarrion trilogy and found it very fun in a trashy
sort of way.  Other authors I'm thinking of are Orson Scott Card, Dorothy
Sayers,  (just to give you an idea).  Strong female
characters are a plus.   Any suggestions?

Thanks -
Kathleen
      
-- 
"And this is a tiny radiotransmitter.  It transmits tiny radios through
 the air to this tiny radio receiver."
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: ceblair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Charles Blair)
Subject: Second-hand bookstores (Illinois)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 17:26:24 GMT

   I would like to know about ``undiscovered'' bookstores south of Chicago.
Willing to drive to get to them, but prefer places that don't involve
driving in heavy traffic.

   PS Does anybody have any information about how the Chicago bookstores
were affected by the flood?
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: hhuang@m4-035-15.MIT.EDU (Han-Young Huang)
Subject: The Closing of the American Mind
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 05:01:29 GMT


Is this section also for general type of books, such as The Closing of the
American Mind?  Books which can tell me how to live?

Bloom's book is one I fought and reread several times.  It has slowly grown on
me, this 18 year old MIT math and computer science major.

I'm not sure if modern fiction fills the bill of "telling me how to live."
That, in fact, seems to be the key issue.  So somebody enlighten me.  I have
too many problem sets to do.
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:7542 misc.wanted:4832 ne.wanted:480 rec.antiques:596
From: davis@gauss.enet.dec.com (Peter Davis)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,misc.wanted,ne.wanted,rec.antiques
Subject: WANTED:  Out-of-print books on cartooning, comics
Date: 6 Apr 92 14:36:09 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation


I have a small (but growing, I hope) collection of books on cartooning and
comics.  If you have any older, possibly out-of-print books on these subjects,
and you're interested in selling any, please let me know.  I'm looking for
books on the history of comic strips, on individual comic strip artists, on
writing and creating comic strips, and also on cartooning in general and on
individual cartoonists.

Thanks.

                   /
                  /
        /  /  /  /		Peter Davis,	Digital Equipment Corp.
       /  /  /  /				davis@3d.enet.dec.com
      /__/__/__/
     /
  __/
From: chucks@uars2.uucp (Chuck Smythe)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: This Present Darkness/Piercing the Darkness.
Date: 16 Apr 92 16:21:15 GMT
Article-I.D.: ncar.1992Apr16.162115.9033
Organization: NCAR/Atmospheric Chemistry Division

In article <1992Apr15.164412.370@samba.oit.unc.edu> joan@med.unc.edu (Joan Shields) writes:
>didn't Janweillem van de Wetering write a book about Zen or maybe it was
>about his experiences in a Zen monestary?  Funny, but his police
>procedurals tend to be very Zen.

He wrote two; _The Empty Mirror_ and _A Glimpse of Nothingness_.  They are
not fiction, however, but autobiography. The first concern his studies of
Zen in Kyoto, the second his continuing studies at an American ashram.  
Hence the Zen flavor to his fiction...

			Chuck Smythe
From: wagner@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: A about _Gravity's_Rainbow_
Date: 7 Apr 92 21:38:48 GMT

In article <leroy.702618840@syzygy>, Leroy writes:
> weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener) writes:
> 
>>In article <1992Mar29.194133.21609@Cadence.COM>, vince@cadence (Vince Gibboni) writes:
> 
>>GR is certainly not a Pollock-like creation.  It has strong patterns
>>and interconnections and movements and themes which simply cannot be
>>presented in a traditional format, is all.
> 
>     A lot of criticism of Pynchon gets dismissed this way. I'm curious: what
> possible themes, ideas, etc could Pynchon present that _can't_ appear in  
> "traditional" formats?
> 
> -- Leroy@socs.uts.edu.au                    "Porn-o-graphic! Un-American Trash!"
>                                                     -- Trailer, the Naked Lunch.

Were they presentable in a traditional format, in particular in a usenet
factoid, the book would be a formal
exercise, wouldn't it?  Me, I thought that the gradually decaying plotlines
and characters and the conspicuous lack of an ending tied in nicely with 
the explicit musings on disorder and randomness in the earlier stages of
the book.  

I wonder, si there a corrlllation beeen who like Faulkner  

                                                 -Luke
Date: 10 Apr 92 05:49:57 GMT
From: leroy@socs.uts.edu.au (Leroy.)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Distribution: world
Subject: Gravity's Rainbow

weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener) writes:

>I don't think it is representative.  It's his first truly political book,
>which is part of its appeal.

    Deifying the sixties is hardly politics.

>>       It's wonderful we can argue like this without patronising each other. 

>You don't have to insult what _you_ haven't figured out.

    That's not an argument, it's a cliche. They are, I'm told, to be avoided.

--
-- Leroy@socs.uts.edu.au ------------------------- "Mike? I'm extremely excited"
                                                        -- My Own Private Idaho.
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:7767 alt.politics.homosexuality:1944 alt.sex:13991
From: jfh@greenber.austin.ibm.com (John F Haugh II)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,alt.politics.homosexuality,alt.sex
Subject: Re: Homosexualism
Date: 8 Apr 92 22:25:12 GMT
Organization: Best Care South of the Red River, LCC, Austin, Republic of Texas

In article <1992Apr7.221338.18438@shearson.com> mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto) writes:
>jfh@greenber.austin.ibm.com (John F Haugh II) writes:
>> I have seldom been sexually attracted to non-white, non-protestant,
>> non-conservative, non-over-weight women.
>
>Let me get this straight -- you are only attracted to fat, white, Protestant
>conservative women?  I find myself sexually attracted to some women whom
>I don't know.  Rarely can I tell their religion or politics.

Somehow, some of this came out wrong.  I don't like overweight women
at all ...

But let's say I see a woman (and have my hispanic, episcopalnian, thin but
muscular wife's permission ;-) and she looks to me a liberal whacko.  The
odds of my responding to any of her advances (cuz I'm certainly not going to
approach her myself) in a positive manner are identically ZERO.

About the same as when gay men proposition me.  Interesting, no?

>And "prefers conservative sexual partner" is an oxymoron.

Now this I'd like to have explained to me.  As would my conservative
sexual partner ...

>> If, then, my mind controls my sexual response to individuals based
>> on their ethnic background, their visual appearance, and their
>> political orientation, what do you think the likelyhood is that
>> my mind also choices a partner based on their gender?
>
>I'd say it is about the same likelyhood as your mind determining whether
>or not you were born with testicles.

Sorry, being born with or without testicles is readily observable.  Show
me this "likes members of the same gender" gene.  Explain how, in the
presense of this gene, people who are "likes members of the same gender"
positive can choose to stop being "likes members of the same gender"
positive, because THIS happens.  And I am led to believe that with AIDS
being what it is, this is happening more and more ...
-- 
John F. Haugh II      | VNET: LCCB386 at AUSVMQ | "Physical Fitness is the
SneakerNet: 042/2F068 | MaBell: (512) 823-1078  |  basis for all other forms
Internet: jfh@devnet.la.locus.com               |  of excellence"  -- JFK
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: jhitch@crash.cts.com (Jeffrey Hitchin)
Subject: Re: Asimov's mystery fiction
Organization: Crash TimeSharing, El Cajon, CA
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 06:03:47 GMT

These are the Asimov mysteries I can find:

The Robot Series
	The Caves of Steel
	The Naked Sun
	The Robots of Dawn
	(These are sort of mysteries.  I liked them, anyway.)

Murder at the ABA

A Whiff of Death

The Union Club Mysteries

The Black Widowers Series
	Tales of the Black Widowers
	More Tales of the Black Widowers
	Casebook of the Black Widowers
	Banquets of the Black Widowers
	Puzzles of the Black Widowers 

The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov.

	Mostly, these books are collections with the exception
of ABA and Whiff.  Since the Union Club Mysteries and Puzzles
of the Black Widowers, there have been more shorts with those
characters published in EQMM, and one in The New Adventures of
Batman collection.  There is also a Griswold story in the
collection _Mistletoe Mysteries_.  The last Black Widower story
I can find however, is "Lost in a Space Warp," EQMM, March 1990.

	Goodbye, Dr. Asimov, Henry and Griswold will be missed.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: jsw21124@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Joseph S. Walker)
Subject: Faulkner Question
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 18:53:20 GMT

Does anybody know where the phrase "found not death" comes from?  It's
something that Quentin says several times in THE SOUND AND THE FURY, and
I have the nagging feeling that it's a ref to something.  If you know,
please email me at : jsw21124@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu.  Thanks!

Jazz Walker
From: sb51@prism.gatech.EDU (Susan Bovair)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Novelist seeks 1645-1660 England info
Date: 15 Apr 92 15:05:24 GMT
Organization: Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology

bobdev@hprpcd.rose.hp.com (Bob Devereaux) says:

>
>I'm contemplating a novel set in 17th century England, specifically
>during the Cromwellian decade or a portion thereof.  I'd appreciate
>any leads as to good non-fictional accounts of that time and/or
>convincing novels set in that same period.  General histories are
>good, though mostly I'm looking for books that can provide the look
>and feel of the time, details I can judiciously lift and rearrange
>to help create a convincing background for my story.

Antonia Fraser has written two histories set in this period.  One
is a biography of Cromwell, and the other is about women during
the Civil Wars, what they did, how they were viewed etc.  I can't
remember the name of the book though.  

Susan

-- 
Susan Bovair
School of Psychology,
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
From: ncramer@bbn.com (Nichael Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Second-hand bookstores (Illinois)
Date: 17 Apr 1992 00:52:50 GMT
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Reply-To: ncramer@labs-n.bbn.com (Nichael Cramer)
NNTP-Posting-Host: bbn.com

ceblair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Charles Blair) writes:
>   I would like to know about ``undiscovered'' bookstores south of Chicago.
>Willing to drive to get to them, but prefer places that don't involve
>driving in heavy traffic.

Charles,

So long you're starting from Champagne-Urbana and are "willing to drive to
get to them" you might consider Between the Lines in Bloomington IN.

Not exactly "undiscovered" but it is a nice used bookstore (at least it was
last time I was there).  (Also, Bloomington/Monroe County is a pretty area
and there are other bookstores in town if BtL doesn't meet your fancy.)

Nichael
From: weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: A about _Gravity's_Rainbow_
Date: 7 Apr 92 15:47:12 GMT
Reply-To: weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Organization: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology
In-reply-to: Leroy

In article <leroy.702618840@syzygy>, Leroy writes:
>>GR is certainly not a Pollock-like creation.  It has strong patterns
>>and interconnections and movements and themes which simply cannot be
>>presented in a traditional format, is all.

>    A lot of criticism of Pynchon gets dismissed this way. I'm curious: what
>possible themes, ideas, etc could Pynchon present that _can't_ appear in  
>"traditional" formats?

Paranoia.  The impossible quest.  Hallucinations. ...

Present these in a linear narrative, and you get slighty warm tap water.
With Pynchon, these come out full blast, and the reader lives the themes.

>    People use the same excuse for Kerouac, but his "Gee whiz, I sure like 
>jazz and travel" ideas never seemed too difficult. It's fascinating that
>Kerouac, Pynchon and the excerable Tom Robbins are lauded for their inability
>to maintain narrative, and specifically for their lazy editing.

Such lauding for Pynchon is nonsense.  He can maintain narrative, and does
in numerous portions of his works.  And he clearly edited his works with an
incredible precision.
-- 
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: ezellj@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Jean Ezell)
Subject: Re: ``The Double Clue'' (Hercule Poirot mystery)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 17:45:36 GMT

saarinen@sp1.csrd.uiuc.edu (Sirpa Saarinen) writes:

>This week's mystery (The wasp's nest) was in the book "Hercule Poirot's
>early cases" (or something like that). I saw in it also some other 
>of the mysteries that are now shown on PBS.

I've been assuming that the recent Poirot series was based on short
stories, but then one of the recent ones (I forget the name--the
daughter of a millionaire is travelling on a train with her jewels
and gets killed) seemed like a rework of _The_Blue_Train_ shortened
to fit in 1 hour.  Or is TBT an amplification of a short story?
--
*  Jean Ezell                 *  University of Illinois   *
*                             *  Coordinated Science Lab  *
*  ezell@uicsl.csl.uiuc.edu   *  1101 W. Springfield      *
*  (217) 244-5536             *  Urbana, IL  61801        *
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:8124 soc.history:3670 soc.culture.jewish:8153
From: grady@public.BTR.COM (Grady Ward  grady@btr.com)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,soc.history,soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Hitler's Religion (was re: Instant Yuppies)
Date: 17 Apr 92 01:18:25 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.books
Organization: BTR Public Access UNIX, MtnView CA. Contact: Customer Service cs@BTR.COM

Does anyone know why Mikheil Zelzany persists in crossposting
irrelevancies to this group?

MZ:

That's easy, I am a dickhead.

GW:

Oh.  I guess that is the Occam's explanation...

MZ:

And there is a pretty obvious reason why I attach the
"asshole" appellation at the drop of a trousers, to wit:

GW:

That's Ok, you don't need to show me no stinkin' badges!


-- 
Grady Ward  grady@btr.com  KD6ETH @ K6LY.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NA  Moby Lexicons
From: sammy@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (Sammy)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE
Date: 15 Apr 92 02:17:40 GMT
Organization: The Comp Center

In article <JMC.92Apr13092614@SAIL.Stanford.EDU> jmc@cs.Stanford.EDU writes:
>
>In my childhood usage, rubbers were black, covered the shoe only half
>way and were stretched on.  Galoshes were higher, some other color,
>had a tongue, were easy to get on and fastened with clasps.  Rubbers
>were used for rain and galoshes for snow and slush.
>--
>John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305

Same here! Also used were rubber boots, which were harder to get on
than goloshes, being more like rubbers with tops (coming up to about
mid-calf I would guess, although I suppose that depended on one's age).
Rubber boots sometimes had a "pleat" on the side which snapped closed,
but often didn't. They came in red, black, and white, to the best of
my knowledge. It seems they fit the shoe much more closely than galoshes,
and so took a lot of pulling to get on. One removed them by stepping on
them in the back near the heel with one foot, lifting the other foot 
out of the rubber boot at the same time.

-- 
Sammy=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The enemy of women...is not men, just as the enemy of blacks is not whites.
The enemy is "the tyranny of the dull mind." Carol S. Pearson, _The Hero Within_ 
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: American Psycho
Date: 24 Mar 92 21:19:31 GMT
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org

In article <13998@pitt.UUCP> geb@dsl.pitt.edu (gordon e. banks) writes:

>I suspect the person
>who ripped out the pages found those sections especially erotic.


I suspect it was a self-designated censor. Someone who wanted to keep the
passages for rereading could have photocopied them.



--Mike





-- 
Mike Godwin,     |"Les vrais paradis sont les paradis
mnemonic@eff.org | qu'on a perdus."
(617) 864-0665   | 
EFF, Cambridge   |          --Marcel Proust
From: kasprj@isaac.its.rpi.edu (Jim Kasprzak)
Subject: Re: ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE
Keywords: grinders,subs,heroes,package stores,spas,tonic
Reply-To: kasprj@rpi.edu
Organization: The Big Wedge
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 07:37:49 GMT

In article <84182@bu.edu>, soren@bu-geo.bu.edu (Soren Ryherd) writes:

|> One other thing I noticed is that people don't use the word
|> "freeway" much here, perhaps because the local six-laner isn't.  Free,
|> that is.
 
 Freeways seem to be entirely a West Coast phenomenon. I've never heard 
anything in the Northeast called a freeway, not even I-91 (which _is_ 
free). Out here we have Thruways, Turnpikes and Highways, though I can 
never tell how they decide which is which. I prefer to stick to the 
railroads myself.
------------------------------------------------------------------
     __  Live from Capitaland, heart of the Empire State...
 ___/  | Jim Kasprzak, computer operator @ RPI, Troy, NY, USA
/____ *| Why can't people stop taking things so seriously? 
     \_| "All I want is to have my peace of mind" - Boston   
      ====  e-mail: kasprj@rpi.edu or kasprzak@mts.rpi.edu 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: gere@umunhum.stanford.edu (Susan Gere)
Subject: Re: Chronicles of Prydain (was Re: The Tolkien way..)
Organization: Stanford University, CSL
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 92 20:30:06 GMT

In article <morteng.34@loke.dhhalden.no> morteng@loke.dhhalden.no (MORTEN GRAESBY) writes:
 > The other day I read a book by Lloyd Alexander titled The Book of 
 > Three, a real Tolkien- style story with heros, dwarfs and evil men.
 > The book has it's own "versions" of Frodo, Gandalf and Sauron.

Aaaack! Not!  While the Chronicles of Prydain follow the Welsh Mabinogi,
taking a number of characters (Annuwn, lord of the underworld) and icons
directly and/or somewhat recast, Middle Earth has no relation to early 
Celtic/Anglo/Saxon/etc legends beyond the hero, the quest, and the green 
earth. Tolkien borrows heavily from the Norse mythos, but I believe his 
real genius is in forging a world that is at the same time uniquely modern 
and British. 

The flavor of these two (both great) works is much the same, though, and 
if you like one you will surely appreciate the other. Alexander wrote for 
younger readers, but I didn't discover them until well into my twenties. 
Taran's story is a very well done exploration of that perpetual human quest:
finding and defining one's identity.  Good for all ages.

 > How's the other books in the saga of Taran the Assistant Pig- Keeper? 
 > (Does he become a hero?).
  
Oh, come on.  He's a hero from the beginning!  A heroic pig-keeper.
(Spoilers?: -> That's the point.  As for later... ah.)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: wismith@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (William R. Smith)
Subject: Re: suggestions for good fantasy/sf, mystery, for travel reading?
Organization: NAS, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 92 16:10:17 GMT

Kathleen Hunt writes:
>Hi -- I have a friend who is about to leave on a 3-month field season
>in Panama.  (She's an ecologist)  She's just mentioned that she wants to
>take a bunch of books along, and I'm touring the local used bookstores to
>put together a collection for her.  She particularly mentioned fantasy/sf
>novels -- books that don't require *too* much in-depth concentration, but
>that are well-written w/decent characterization.  


When on field trips, backpacking, transoceanic flights and the like I
favor big, long paperbacks.  On an archaeologic dig in Africa a couple
of years ago I took Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove".  Its a little
slow getting started but picks up steam as it goes.  This book has totally
unforgetable characters.

>  Other authors I'm thinking of are Orson Scott Card, 

While on that same expedition Orson Scott Card's "Seventh Son" was making
the rounds.  Most people read it in a day and passed it to the next.
Slow reader me took two days, passed it on, and went back to "Lonesome
Dove".

Others I have read in similar circumstances are Richard Adams' "Maia"
which fits several of your requirements.  Its fantasy with a very
powerful woman as central character.  Also the James Michener books
"Centennial", "Hawaii", "Alaska", and "Texas".  

I have Collene McCollough's (know I screwed up the name) "The First Man
in Rome" set aside for such a trip.  She wrote "The Thorn Birds" which
qualifies as a big, long paperback and would be good for such a trip.

Anyway, it sounds like a fun assignment to help you friend select books
for a trip.  Like the "If you were on a desert island and you could
only...." sort of thing.  


Have fun,


William Smith
Intel, SSD 
(415) 604-3877

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books