HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Limpopo?
Date: 9 Oct 92 20:47:52 GMT


Francis Muir writes:
 
        John McCarthy poses the question:
 
                "All set about with fever trees".  What's a fever tree, Fido?
 
        Good question, but you're asking the wrong person. Field-Marshal
        Montgomery -- not one given to wordiness -- was asked, on his return
        from a trip to Africa, what he thought of the place. "Africa? Africa
        is very large." I knew N and W, you are asking about S and E. I waded
        feverishly through the mangrove swamps of Nigeria's Western Region,
        and maybe that was where the dreaded Anopheles transfused me with
        someone else's Plasmodial blood. So, for me it is the mangrove tree.
 
Hey!  What is the matter with you guys out there?  What happened to that
world-famous On-line OED?  Why don't you just look it up in the dictionary?
 
My Webster's says:
 
        Fever Tree n (1868): Any of several shrubs or trees that are
                             thought to indicate regions free from fever
                             or that yield remedies for fever: as
                             a): a blue gum (eucalyptus globulus)
                             b): an African acacia (acacia xanthlophloes).
 
 
Mark
 
 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: tmaddox@netcom.com (Tom Maddox)
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up again.
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 16:18:46 GMT

In article <rfjp3q=@lynx.unm.edu> rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu (Roger Squires) writes:
>	I enjoyed _The Spell_ quite
>	a bit in my Fascism class awhile back.

	Christ it's worse than C. Cramer thinks:

	the liberals are taking *classes* in fascism;

	and using books of *magic*!

	Good thing Cramer's got his guns.
-- 
				Tom Maddox
		    	    tmaddox@netcom.com
		"The Reptoids eat humans like we eat chickens."
				Alex Alexander
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: jane@bohra.cpg.oz.au (Jane Lean)
Subject: Re: Literature Students/Small World
Organization: Computer Power Software
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 01:15:12 GMT

In article <92376@netnews.upenn.edu> crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford) writes:
> In article <9OCT199210321496@portal.lasc.lockheed.com> le01167@portal.lasc.lockheed.com (Ron Nadel) writes:
>>In article <92305@netnews.upenn.edu>, crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford) writes...
>
>>>Also, I'd put the entire book "As I Lay Dying" in this category.  I didn't
>>>enjoy it, but I knew it was good, even great.  It's not that I found it
>>>boring or difficult to get through at all; I was riveted.  But that is
>>>_not_ an enjoyable book.
>
You put me in mind of Simone deBeauvoir's "A Very Easy Death", which is
the sort of example I was looking for in the first instance I think.

>
>>If you didn't enjoy it, was it great on some intellectual level?  
>
> Yes, I think so.  And emotionally, too (as you go on to ask later in
> your post).  I didn't enjoy it because it was a relentlessly grim tale of
> a screwed-up family tearing each other apart; it was a bleak and
> exhausting read.  But it's also an excellent book, a true work of art. 
>
The same with the deBeauvoir.  I could recognize and pay tribute to her
use of language whilst being devastated by the content.  I very rarely
enjoy putting my emotions through the wringer like that.  (Ok, now ask
me why I enjoy Jennifer Jonhston, because I enjoy her I do, despite having a 
similar sort of emotional reaction.  I can't put my finger on the 
difference - something to do with the lyrical quality of her writing, 
perhaps.)

Now, anyone want to fight about Anne Tyler's "Dinner At the Homesick
Restaurant", which I neither enjoyed, nor credit with being "great". ?

Jane

(Sorry about the muddle of quoted stuff here, I couldn't work out which
bits to keep!)
> Lauren Crawford  //  crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu


-- 
Jane Lean                                                 jane@bohra.cpg.oz.au
CP Software Export Pty Ltd                               Phone:  +61-3-8230213
ACN 006 640 133  (A Division         "They're gonna hang some new stars in the 
of the Computer Power Group)          heavens tonight."     -- Laurie Anderson
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: psm1@ellis.uchicago.edu (patricia sayre mccoy)
Subject: Native American novels
Reply-To: psm1@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 12:59:07 GMT

Have you tried any of Peter Daniels books?  They are historical
novels about the Mayas, Aztecs and Incas.  I just finished his
most recent one, _The Incas_ and found it wonderfully evocative
and a beautiful description of the pre-Spanish Inca culture
and society.  There is some description of the religion and 
the main character has several visions and dreams, so they
might fit your request for the spiritual aspects.  I found
the culture fully described and wonderful descriptions of
life under the Incas.  The history and politics may be fuzzy
to someone not a scholar in the area, but give it a try.  I
also appreciated the fact that the Spanish conquest was not
the focus of the work--we need more non-European centered
stories.  I have only begun the other two novels, and so can't 
say much about them, except that they start out good.  (Yes,
I'm reading them both at the same time).  Thanks for
starting this thread, I've wanted to rave about _The Incas_
ever since I finished it last month.
Pat Sayre McCoy
University of Chicago


-- 
Bitnet:                   uclpsm1@uchimvs1
Internet:         psm1@midway.uchicago.edu
From: crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up again.
Date: 8 Oct 92 13:07:47 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

"The Executioner's Song."  Couldn't get past the first few chapters.  It
was like watching Geraldo Rivera.  


-- 
Lauren Crawford  //  crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu
From: kat@bigwpi.WPI.EDU (Flame's Passion)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Fictitious Fiction
Keywords: Morgenstern, Garp, Trout
Date: 14 Oct 92 23:33:16 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
NNTP-Posting-Host: bigwpi.wpi.edu

In article <1992Oct14.144505.1348@netwise.com> hilary@netwise.com (Hilary Lane) writes:

>Byatt's _Possession_ is a total satire on academia and collectors. I read the
>book seriously and thought it was wonderful, until the last 150 pages, when
>I thought it fell apart. I subsequently read critiques of the book and
>discovered the satire aspect. Had I read it with that in mind, I would've
>enjoyed it that much better. 

Why do you feel it fell apart?  It's been awhile since I've read it and some
of it's a little fuzzy to me.  Please elaborate.  I also never read any
critiques of the book, so I'm not totally up on the satire aspect of it.  I
figured some of it out for myself, but I probably missed alot of it...

>All in all, though, I thought the book was cleverly written and the mystery
>was carried out quite well (a la "It was a dark and stormy night.")

AGREED! I look forward to reading more by her.

kat
 ***************************************************************************
      Christina Freeman                                 kat@wpi.wpi.edu
		"Was there not, from the first, more poison in
 			  your nature than in mine?" 
                           - _Rappaccini's Daughter_ 
			      Nathaniel Hawthorne
                  ********************************************
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: anand@Cadence.COM (Anand Bemra)
Subject: Re: Request: worthwhile bios of JFK and RFK
Keywords: Kennedy biography JFK RFK
Organization: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 20:27:42 GMT

wade@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu (S.Wade) writes:


>  Can someone recommend worthwhile biographies of
>  John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy? 

>  I want to avoid the fawning bios that view them as
>  flawless heroes.  I also want to avoid the books
>  that are just scandal rags.  Are there any
>  books about them that stand out above the rest?

Check out the Oct '92 issue of 'Z' which has a Chomsky article
debunking the tales of intrigue about Camelot lost. He also 
drills the tales put out by various Kennedy memoirists. Newman
comes under serious criticism for his contention that JFK was
surrounded by evil advisers who were trying to thwart his secret
plan to withdraw without victory.

anand
--
Screw PBS & NPR news. Tired of news "sanitized for your protection?". Try:
misc.activism.progressive, "Lies Of Our [NY]Times", "Z" magazine (Boston).
KPFA 94.1 FM (Bay Area), 90.7 (L.A.), 90.1 (Houston, TX), 89.3 (Washington, DC)
These are my opinions, not my employer's. 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: fehr@ms.uky.edu (Jeff Davis)
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down...blah,blah,blah
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 20:21:22 GMT
Organization: Austerlitz, Gershovitz, and Carmichael

W. A. Seaver writes:
>
>"An American Tragedy". Oh, god, was it dull. He was a journalist 
>writing like a journalist, passing on droll descriptions and 
>reveling in hackneyed phrases. H.L. Mencken had a few wonderful 
>things to say about Dreiser:
>
>"I often wonder if Dreiser gets anything properly describable as 
>pleasure out of this dogged accumulation of threadbare, 
>undistinguished, uninspiring nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, 
>pronounds, participles and conjunctions. ... Every reader of the 
>Dreiser novels must cherish astounding specimens--of awkward, 
>platitudinous marginalia, of whole scenes spoiled by bad writing, of 
>writing as brackish as so many lumps of sodium hyposulphite. ... 
>["The Genius"] rambles, staggers, heaves, pitches, struggles, 
>totters, wavers, halts, turns aside, trembles on the edge of 
>collapse."

I cannot quote you chapter and verse, but Mencken also found Dreiser
to be a serious and powerful novelist. I don't think he found the
bad writing to be death to the books. 

And Dreiser's "day job" was even more prosaic than journalism: didn't he 
edit modiste magazines? 
-- 
Jeff Davis <davis@keats.ca.uky.edu>
Nobody knows, from sea to shining sea, why we are having all this trouble
with our republic.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: brett@mahler.psu.edu (Brett K Lynch)
Subject: Books in Print DataBase
Organization: Penn State Center for Academic Computing
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 92 20:12:58 GMT


	I am looking for a DataBase that can provide information on books  
currently in print and/or were once in print.  Including data on such things as  
Publisher Address/Number/Net Address, Author, Copyright year, et cetera..

	Any help in locating such a system pay/or non pay would be greatly  
appreciated...

	Also if anyone has access to a system which allows the user to access  
book titles by ISBN - this information would be extremely useful...


         Brett K. Lynch

NetAddressing : brett@vivaldi.psu.edu
            or  bkl104@psuvm.psu.edu

"We are perched headlong on the edge of boredom.  Reaching for Death at the end  
of a candlestick.  Searching for something that has already found us."
                                      -James Douglas Morrison
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: seaverw@columbia.dsu.edu (W. A. Seaver)
Subject: Once I put this book down...blah,blah,blah
Organization: Dakota State University
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 18:59:51 GMT

This is a little late in the game, but I don't get to this group every day, 
and I just had to put in my $.02 worth:

"An American Tragedy". Oh, god, was it dull. He was a journalist 
writing like a journalist, passing on droll descriptions and 
reveling in hackneyed phrases. H.L. Mencken had a few wonderful 
things to say about Dreiser:

"I often wonder if Dreiser gets anything properly describable as 
pleasure out of this dogged accumulation of threadbare, 
undistinguished, uninspiring nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, 
pronounds, participles and conjunctions. ... Every reader of the 
Dreiser novels must cherish astounding specimens--of awkward, 
platitudinous marginalia, of whole scenes spoiled by bad writing, of 
writing as brackish as so many lumps of sodium hyposulphite. ... 
["The Genius"] rambles, staggers, heaves, pitches, struggles, 
totters, wavers, halts, turns aside, trembles on the edge of 
collapse."
From: amnell@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Marko Amnell)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: More philosophy of science tomes
Date: 15 Oct 92 12:57:01 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

Addenda & errata.  The author of _Explaining Science_ is none other than
Ronald Giere, esteemed Professor at the Minnesota Center for Scientific
Philogyny.

And one more to justify bandwidth.  _Science and Relativism_ by leisure
suit Larry Laudan of the University of Hawaii (U of Chicago Press, 1990). 
This is another introduction, but with a twist.  It is transcript of a
Seminar held between four philosophers.  From the Note to the Reader:

  At a business meeting of the American Philosophical Congress in
  December, 1988, a resolution was passed calling for a commitee to
  be empaneled and charged with preparing a report to the association
  on "The Current Status of Epistemic Relativism, Especially with
  Respect to Scientific Knowledge."  Accordingly, a committee -- 
  consisting of four prominent members of that society with divergent
  perspectives -- was duly appointed.  The members were Quincy
  Rortabender (relativist and author of _Knowledge as Myth: The Outlines
  of Ethno-Deconstructivism_, and _Skepticism about Everything Except
  the Social Sciences: A Post-Modernist Guide_), Percy Lauwey
  (pragmatist; author, _Tinkering with Truth_ and _How to Fix Broken
  Ideas_), Rudy Reichfeigl (positivist: author, _Empirical Adequacy:
  Who Could Ask for Anything More?_ and _Everyman's History of
  Philosophy: Great Thinkers from Frege to Carnap_), and Karl Selnam
  (realist; author, _Telling it Like It Is_ and _The Irenic Guide to
  Joint Carving_).

-- 
Marko Amnell
amnell@klaava.helsinki.fi
Graduate Student in Philosophy
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: 15 Oct 92 10:22:11 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

In article <12737@optilink.UUCP> (Clayton Cramer) shoots:

No, don't shoot!  I may be Euro-scum, but I pay my taxes.

>Perhaps you watch too much American TV?

God forbid!  An hour or two of the idiot-box per day, selected from
BBC World Service ("Delta citizens report to feeding area!"), CNN
(tabloidy, but live), TV5 (French Europe-wide), 3SAT (German),
Finnish TV (3 channels), Swedish TV, Estonian TV, Moscow TV,
and an assortment of cable-junk like Filmnet, Superchannel,
Skychannel, RTL Plus (German), etc. etc. ad nauseum.  No NBC,
CBS or ABC.  And I don't want my MTV (although it's there, of course).
No shortage of the tubeage here, pal.

-- 
Marko Amnell
amnell@klaava.helsinki.fi
Graduate Student in Philosophy
From: Shirley_Gillard_Schneckloth@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Looking for Sean Anthony Murry
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 92 11:57:03 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: usa

I'm looking for Sean Anthony Murry. You posted that you were looking for
a writing group. Contact me for further info.

sgs

Shirley_Gillare_Schneckloth@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: wismith@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (William R. Smith)
Subject: Re: Mr Roberts (was: Re: Books in the time of school)
Organization: NAS, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 92 14:54:20 GMT

Heather writes:
	
	I enjoyed the book ["Mister Roberts"] in high school too.  Written
	by Thomas Heggie, or Heggen? I don't believe he wrote anything else. 
	Could be seen as a precursor to the later style of war "comedies"
	such as "MASH" and "Catch-22", at least in regards to the portrayal
	of individualism vs. the military.



In high school I also enjoyed two books by William Leaderer.  The first
was, I think, "All The Ships At Sea", and the second was "Ensign O'Toole
and Me".  Another O'Toole?  If I have the title right, ATSAS, is about
his going to Annapolis and getting commissioned in the Navy.  That's
where he meets O'Toole.  The second is a sequel with their adventures
in the far East.  Very funny, at least at the time.

I believe Leaderer went on to co-author "The Ugly American".  EO'TaM
was made into a movie or maybe it was a short lived TV series. TUA
was made into a movie with Marlon Brando.



William Sburgfort Smith
Intel, SSD
From: oliver@redwood.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Oliver Sharp)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Seeking: incisive essayists, any race, creed, or gender
Date: 15 Oct 1992 01:47:35 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: redwood.cs.berkeley.edu

I recently had the pleasure of rereading a book of essays by George Orwell.
His clear and cogent prose was a welcome antidote to the rhetoric of the
political campaigns, which have me muttering "cant, cant, cant and vanity"
under my breath.  It reminded me what a nice vehicle the essay is, and I
thought I would solicit the net for other suggestions.  Some recent and 
not so recent pleasures:
  Virginia Woolf, _A Room of One's Own_, of course, and others
  Orwell on Dickens, on the Spanish civil war, on the British Empire, ...
  Barbara Tuchman's essays on historiography in _Practicing History_
    (is it just me, or are her topical essays notably inferior to the more
     general ones in the first section?)
  Popper's lectures in _Conjectures and Refutations_
  Italo Calvino, in _The Uses of Literature_ (though I disagree violently
     with much of what he says, particularly about AI and computers)
  Bertrand Russell

Well, that's enough to be getting on with.  Lit crit, philosophy, religion,
politics, any or all are fair game.  The feel I'm looking for is Orwell,
though; that sudden sense that you are in the presence of a wise, rational,
small l liberal, who sees clearly and thinks deeply.  They can be wrong,
but never cheap.  

Any suggestions?
- Oliver

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir)
Subject: Re: Sburgfort's Sleuthing
Organization: Stanford Exploration Project
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 22:03:53 GMT

The One & Only "Genuine" Schenone writes of Smugfart Smythe:

	Curses, man! Get the facts straight. My name is spelled 
	"Schenone," not "Schonone." [...] And I was not sitting 
	to your right reading _Guns of August_. That was, uh, 
	what's-her-name.

	I was the voluptuous femme fatale seated on the floor, 
	licking the last drops of wine from my glass. 

Which wine was not, Smug Fart, Mouton Cadet, but a rather elegant 
offering from Mouton-Rothchild dedicated by the baron to his good
lady wife, Phillipe de Rothchild. What was the year? '84? '86?

							Fido
From: jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com (Jim Mann)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Borders Bookstores sold to K-Mart
Date: 9 Oct 92 12:30:05 GMT
Reply-To: jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com
Distribution: na

In article <92210@netnews.upenn.edu> crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu  
(Lauren L. Crawford) writes:
> In article <7083@transfer.stratus.com>  
jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com writes:
> 
> >After all, if they get rid of all
> >that literature stuff that doesn't sell much, they can triple
> >the number of romances in the store.  Sigh!
> 
> Triple the romances?  Our Borders is such a pick-up joint as it is.
> 

I've been to two Borders (Pittsburgh, PA and Framingham, MA) and
both were very literate bookstores. They had very large
literature sections (containing books from lots of small publishers
and British publishers not seen in most bookstores), lare philosophy
sections, large history sections, good SF and mystery sections
(not "everything-you-might-want large, like the literature,
history, and philosophy sections, but good), good language sections
(the Framinghmam store has a whole shelf of books on Latin, as well 
as two bookcases full of Greek-English and Latin-English books), and 
so forth.  The romance section in Framingham is small: about
half the size or less of the SF section.

Ever since Borders opened, I've been doing most of my 
book shopping there, even though I have to pay full price for
paperbacks that I could get for 10% less at Walden's.  I've felt
the 10% is worth it to encourage a store that carries almost
everything I'm looking for.  I hope this doesn't change.


romance section is smal

--
Jim Mann            
Stratus Computer   jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com  
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: tmaddox@netcom.com (Tom Maddox)
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up again.
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 22:29:37 GMT

In article <1992Oct9.161829.4900@u.washington.edu> twain@milton.u.washington.edu (Barbara Hlavin) writes:
[Tom Maddox lamented]:
>>	Ah, despite the meeting of souls that occurred with you in your
>>sailor suit, I find that we are not two minds with but a single thought:
>>
>>	to wit, I cannot stand Bellow in general and _Herzog_ in
>>	particular
>
>>	while I sometimes quite like Gaddis
>
>
>"Ah" to you too, it is difference of opinion that makes the world go 
>'round, not just l'amor che muove il sole e l'altre stelle. 

	Well, there you go.  My mistake.  I thought it was that l'amor che
muove thing, but I don't read Italian so am likely to make egregious blunders
in such matters.  I guess I've forfeited my claim to be, as Bertie Wooster
puts it, a _preux chevalier_, alas.

>>But I can find it in my heart to forget such trivial differences when I
>>remember the tango (or was it the fandango?) . . .

>*I* remember, even if you don't.

	But that's just because you didn't take the second hit of acid, and
I'm *much* older than you anyway so I think it unkind of you to hold my drug-
raddled and quasi-Alzheimeric (ian?) condition against me.

>--Barbara, sadly adjusting the collar of her middy

	And looking very cute while doing it, I might add.

	In closing, a quote from Umberto Eco, _Interpretation and Over-
interpretation_:

	"Every object, be it earthly or heavenly, hides a secret."


-- 
				Tom Maddox
		    	    tmaddox@netcom.com
		"The Reptoids eat humans like we eat chickens."
				Alex Alexander
From: jzimm@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Joann Zimmerman)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Books in the time of school
Date: 14 Oct 92 20:56:25 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

In article <1992Oct7.050120.20252@u.washington.edu> twain@milton.u.washington.edu (Barbara Hlavin) writes:

>I do believe, though, that the two books that formed the poles 
>of my personality as a child, two books that I read one right 
>after another when I was nine years old, were _Huckleberry Finn_ 
>and _Eight Cousins_. 

Ah, finally! Someone--the always clear-sighted Barbara--has recast
the question into something I can comprehend and which is capable of
answer. I also had books which appeared to form or express (which came
first? the brain or the book?) portions of my personality which seemed
to be in direct opposition. In my case, they were Alcott's _An
Old-Fashioned Girl_ (read when I was six or so) and various Heinlein
juveniles (which I began to read when I was eight). Quite a
divergence, you might say. You'd be right too--and I still have the
same sort of split, not to say fractured, personality.


-- 
"Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's passion
borders on the chaos of memories" 
                                                -- Walter Benjamin
 ...!cs.utexas.edu!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu!jzimm   
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books