HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: gehri@cc.usu.edu (Gehri Grimaud)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.eddings
Subject: Re: Questions
Date: 9 Sep 92 23:41:34 GMT
Organization: Utah State University

In article <BuBGvG.MoE@acsu.buffalo.edu>, v124jw4y@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Benjamin R Pierce) writes:
> I don't know...I kept getting the impression throughout the series that
> Eddings couldn't quite make up his mind whether or not Belgarion was 
> immortal.  He continued aging after becoming a sorcerer, for one thing, 
> and then there was the business of needing an heir.  If he is immortal,
> it's likely to be pretty hard on him, as he will have to watch his wife
> and possibly most of his children grow old and die while he remains young.
> Any thoughts on this?

Garion admits that he is going to live a very long time in the last book.
This happens soon after the birth of his first daughter.  He is explainging
how it is that he will have many doughters to someone, Silk maybe?  He also
says that C'Nedra will live as long as her tree, which can add up to a few
years.

===============================================================================
Gehri Grimaud                           gehri@cc.usu.edu
Utah State University                   gehri@usu.bitnet
Office of Computer Services             tel. (801) 750-2392
UMC 4410
Logan, Utah  84322

            "Friends don't let friends do MS-DOS"
===============================================================================
From: millerbe@maxwell.physics.purdue.edu (Barry E. Miller)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.eddings
Subject: Authors Other Than Eddings
Keywords: jordan
Date: 5 Sep 92 23:11:20 GMT


	Someone asked how many books would make up Robert Jordan's
"Wheel Of Time"series.  I believe I read that it was going to be
TEN books.  I thought it was a trilogy when I first started them,
but it seems I've the pleasure of reading them over the next
8 years or so.
	
	This is my first post to the news group.  Eddings has been
my favorite author since I found "Pawn Of Prophecy" as a seventh
grader.  I just finished rereading his Belgariad and Malloreon for
the tenth time. (actually it's the first time I've read them all
at one time, but who's counting)
	Other favorite authors are: Raymond Feist, Robert Jordan,
Tolkein (of course), Kurtz, Kerr, Glen Cook, Steven Brust, ...
and the list continues.  I'm always looking for new authors, so
suggestions are welcome.

Barry Miller
millerbe@maxwell.physics.purdue.edu
.
From: v124jw4y@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Benjamin R Pierce)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.eddings
Subject: Re: Questions
Date: 9 Sep 92 15:11:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <1992Sep9.053345.8041@news.ysu.edu>, ac463@yfn.ysu.edu (Rich Yauman) writes...
> 
>Durnik not being called BelDurnik doesn't bother me,  but I wonder
>about is the fact that Belgarath comments thats its been a long time
>since they have had a new brother... but what about Garion?  He's a
>Sorcerer he had Bel added to his name, being raised Sendar he honors
>all the gods, but he definately shows that he follows Aldur.  
>   Maybe Belgarath just has a hard time thinking of his grandson as 
>being his brother.  I don't know.



I don't know...I kept getting the impression throughout the series that
Eddings couldn't quite make up his mind whether or not Belgarion was 
immortal.  He continued aging after becoming a sorcerer, for one thing, 
and then there was the business of needing an heir.  If he is immortal,
it's likely to be pretty hard on him, as he will have to watch his wife
and possibly most of his children grow old and die while he remains young.
Any thoughts on this?

                                                   --Ben
From: sword@buast7.bu.edu (Bill Mackiewicz)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.eddings
Subject: Re: Questions
Date: 6 Sep 92 19:55:13 GMT
Organization: Astronomy Department, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

In article <1992Sep4.043930.24979@usage.csd.unsw.OZ.AU> 2120158@hydra.maths.unsw.EDU.AU writes:
>In article <Btw2Cv.u2@brunel.ac.uk> Robert.Turner@brunel.ac.uk (Robert Turner) writes:
>>Hokay, have just finished the Seeress, after re-reading all nine other
>>books immediately before, and have a few simple questions....
>>
>>2) Why is Durnik not re-named Beldurnik after he becomes recognised as a
>>disciple of Aldur?
>
>  If you remember that between themselves they call each other their "natural"
>names (ie Belgarion is forever being called Garion), and that they only use
>their "formal" name when in a lot of publicity (ie in cities or the courts of
>kings), and as they were never in city (at least with us) I really can't tell
>what they called Beldurnik.

Belgarath, Beldin, and the other Bel* sorcerers have also had the
Bel in front of their names for thousands of years.  We've run into
Garion and Durnik before they become Bel'ed, and it's probably just
out of convenience and habit that they aren't referred to as Belgarion
and Beldurnik, unless the aforementioned need for formality comes up.
And in Durnik's case, not much came up between the end of the Sorceress of
Darshiva and the end of the series that required that kind of formality.



Bill Mackiewicz                                   \\ /
obsidian@gnu.ai.mit.edu                           - o_____
sword@buast7.bu.edu                              / /| |\\ \\
                                                |_//___\\\\_|
                                                 \\ \\   / / 
                                                  \\ | | // 
                                                   \\\\ //
                                                    \\|//
                                                     \//
Newsgroups: alt.fan.eddings
From: asher@news.cis.ohio-state.edu (Marnita Asher)
Subject: Re: Questions
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept. of Computer and Info. Science
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 06:10:15 GMT

In article <1992Sep9.053345.8041@news.ysu.edu> you write:
>
>Durnik not being called BelDurnik doesn't bother me,  but I wonder
>about is the fact that Belgarath comments thats its been a long time
>since they have had a new brother... but what about Garion?  He's a
>Sorcerer he had Bel added to his name, being raised Sendar he honors
>all the gods, but he definately shows that he follows Aldur.  
>   Maybe Belgarath just has a hard time thinking of his grandson as 
>being his brother.  I don't know.
>-- 
> Rich Yauman ac463@yfn.ysu.edu

THEORY:

In the _Belgariad_, it is made pretty clear that Polgara, Belgareth and 
pretty much the entire universe has been waiting for Garion for thousands
of years.  I think his prescence as a disciple of Aldur had been anticipated
for so long, even before his birth, that when he eventually became a 
disciple, it certainly wasn't a surprise.  Durnik, on the other hand, was a
surprise, a "new" person joining the group.  

If you look at it like that, then it actually had been a long time since
they had gotten a new brother.

Hmmmm.  I wonder if this means that Durnik will start to look like Belgareth,
the way Zedar did?  How will Polgara handle this?

Marnita
From: mlester@ducvax.auburn.edu (Miles Lester)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.eddings
Subject: NEW Eddings Works
Date: 15 Sep 92 19:29:02 GMT
Organization: Division University Computing, Auburn University

While at the University bookstore the other day, I inquired about new
releases of various authors. Along with a forthcoming release from
Raymond Feist (another Riftwar Book), the clerk said 2 new books from 
Eddings were due out for Christmas.

One book was supposed to be the PaperBack version of Sapphire Rose or
whatever the last book of the Elinium was. But he also said that a new
hardback was due out as well, possibly a new Series with SparHawk and 
company.
 
I cannot confirm this, but the University special orders desk has proven
to be quite accurate in the past.......
 
---------------------------------------------------------------- 
| Miles Lester              | "Why are we here?                |
| mlester@auducvax          |       Because we're here,        |
| mlester@ducvax.auburn.edu |           Roll the Bones" (rush) |
---- Administrative Computing Services Auburn University -------
Newsgroups: alt.fan.eddings
From: 2120158@hydra.maths.unsw.EDU.AU ()
Subject: Re: Poledra as the Child Of Light
Organization: school of Mathematics UNSW
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 02:53:23 GMT

In article <9209101300.AA05389@iguana.cis.ohio-state.edu> asher@news.cis.ohio-state.edu (Marnita Asher) writes:
>
>THEORY:
>
>Remember that the Orb is fairly intelligent.  Perhaps it was possible to
>explain to it that it needed to get to the battle, and maybe it let Brand
>touch it, only to transport it.
>
>Marnita

  I doubt it, as remember when Belgarath and the sons of Cherek stole the orb
and took it back to the west, only Garion's great, great, great (with few more
greats) grandfather could touch it, and trust me, I think that the orb would've
wanted to leave Torak.
  Another thing- although the orb is intelligent, it is also very childish,
(rememgber Garion heading of to fight Torak, how Belgarath described it as such).

Just my humble opinion,
Matthew.
From: lwl@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Lydia Leong)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.eddings
Subject: Re: Belgariad
Keywords: Ctuchik
Date: 15 Sep 92 21:28:31 GMT
Organization: Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow

In article <1992Sep15.032300.17344@gucis.cit.gu.edu.au> gomodei@gucis.cit.gu.edu.au (Gavin Omodei) writes:
>At the end of Magicians Gambit, when Belgarath and Ctuchik are exchanging
>'pleasantries'. When Belgarath smugly tells Ctuchik that Ce'Nedra is safe
>at Prolgu under Ul's protection. Ctuchik then says something like this
>"It doesn't really matter Belgarath, one of the others will do just as well"
>and Belgarath replies "No Ctuchik, all of the others are unassailable"
>Does anyone out there have any idea why Ce'Nedra is vunerable and none of the
>others are?

I would guess that this is because Ce'Nedra hadn't completed her "task"
yet. Presumably, some of the characters are able to defend themselves
against Ctuchik (Belgarath, Polgara, etc.), and ther others were, in
some sense, "expendable", because they had either completed their tasks,
or did not have further tasks that could be accomplished by some other
member of the party.

For example, Ce'Nedra _had_ to raise the army -- no other person would
have been capable of doing so.  Her part to play in everything came
after the Orb's recovery. Ctuchik might have suspected that he was going
to lose the confrontation with Belgarath (had he not, a meeting between
Light and Dark would not have been possible). He'd studied the Prophecy,
after all. Perhaps he knew that Ce'Nedra would be needed later on
(Polgara shows Ce'Nedra the passage in the Codex, in _Castle of Wizardry_).

Theories, and more theories... :)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Lydia Leong - CSE '94 | Amberyl@Pern  | "Just try to make sure that Polgara's
lwl@seas.upenn.edu    | Polgara@Aldur |  not in the vicinity of anything 
lwl@imsasun.imsa.edu  | The Belgariad |  breakable when she gets angry. Like
lwl@csa.bu.edu        | "Why me?"     |  large cities and mountain ranges."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 15:15:09 EDT
From: <EXG106@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.eddings
Subject: Re: Authors Other Than Eddings

Other Authors?


       Terry Brooks' Shanara (sp?) series.
       Isaac Asimov (a definite MUST even though it's not fantasy):  Start with
 the Robot novels (Caves of Steel, Naked Sun....) and only then read the
Foundation novels.  If you don't read them in this order, you'll miss half of
the plot.

I once tried Donaldson. I read his Tom Covenant novels (I think that was Donald
son).  I didn't like them at all. They were very hard to get into and I had to
force myself to read them.

                         Eylon
From: sd@Germany.EU.net (Stephan Deutsch)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.eddings
Subject: Re: Poledra as the Child Of Light
Date: 15 Sep 1992 18:14:01 GMT
Organization: EUnet Backbone, Dortmund, Germany
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: walhalla.germany.eu.net

In article <1992Sep9.173326.58742@cc.usu.edu>, gehri@cc.usu.edu (Gehri Grimaud) writes:
> If you recall, at the battle of Vo Mimbre it was a wolf who uncovered the orb
> that was placed in the shield, causing Torak to cringe and be stuck with a
> sword.  BTW, how did the orb get placed in the shield in the first place?
> After all there was no one around who could touch it.

As far as I know all childs of light were able to touch the orb of Aldur
(Garion, Errand) and as a child of light in the battle of Vo Mimbre Poledra
should also be able to handle the orb. May be she placed it to the shield and
that was her task there. This is only my personal guess, not a strong statement
;-)

						Stephan
Newsgroups: alt.fan.eddings
From: sphillip01@cc.curtin.edu.au
Subject: Re: Poledra as the Child Of Light
Organization: Curtin University of Technology
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 07:31:18 GMT

In article <9209101812.AA06535@iguana.cis.ohio-state.edu>, asher@news.cis.ohio-state.edu (Marnita Asher) writes:
> In article <BuDF56.H2H@knot.ccs.queensu.ca> you write:
>>In article <1992Sep10.092735.58765@cc.usu.edu> gehri@cc.usu.edu (Gehri Grimaud) writes:
> 
>>As for the how-old-do-sorcerers-get question... would anyone buy the shape-
>>changing as the key to it all?  When a sorcerer shifts back into his/her
>>human form, s/he has to mentally build up the image of how the body should
>>be.  It's a case of "you're as old as you think you are."
>>
> 
> I strongly disagree.  I think it's obvious that the sorcerers age.  When they
> go back to their human forms from whatever animal they were, they have go
> back to their body as it is, not as they would like it to be.  Remember in
> the Mallorean when Beldin disguises himself as the clown/jester?  In _Demon
> Lord of Karanda_ he almost loses the disguise, due to being drunk with Vella.
> Obviously, to be in any other human form besides your true one requires a
> lot of concentration.  I don't think a sorcerer could permanently alter their
> human form.
> 
> Marnita

I see it more as reverting to your most familiar form. Thus they MAY permanently
make themselves look young, but to do so would need a lot of practice to 
overcome defaulting to their previous & most used form. Beldin, being used to
his previous form, almost returns to what he is most used to ...

Trevor

Newsgroups: alt.fan.eddings
From: wallacen@CS.ColoState.EDU (nathan wallace)
Subject: poledra being married to riva
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 21:29:01 GMT
Organization: Colorado State University, Computer Science Department

This is my first news posting, so apologies in advance for blunders.

Just a note to comment that I thought Beldaran, not Poledra,
married Riva. If so, then Poledra would still be "only" the Child
of Light and not part of the line of Riva.

Also, I remember something about only male heirs had the silvery mark
on their palm to allow  them to safely touch the orb. And Belgarath
said somewhere that the Rivan line was peculiar in that there was
always only one child, a boy, no "cousins, aunts, etc." Makes me
wonder why it changed when Garion had Geran, as he was then allowed
to have lots of daughters...

Nathan Wallace

wallacen@mozart.colosate.colorado.edu

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

email logo under construction --- watch this space!

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Organization: Freshman, CIT general, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: alt.fan.eddings
Date: Fri,  4 Sep 1992 17:43:03 -0400 
From: "Jeffrey E. Byrne" <jbcj+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Sorcery

In a recent posting Grant writes:

	I do have one question though -- if the orb was required to break the
spell's urging at a person to ignore the passage (as it was with Garion
and Belgarath), then how was it that Beldin read it.  If I remember
correctly, a while after, Beldin is talking to Garion and says something
like "Belgarath showed me what you found in the codex -- good work.  I
can't believe we missed that all this time."  How did HE see it without
the orb?

Grant


-After the section of the Mrin Codex was first read by the light of the
Orb, it was said that the Compulsion was forever broken, so that anyone
could read it without "disgust" even without the orb's light shining
upon it.  After Garion read it, it didn't matter if other people found
out, because the whole business would be over soon anyway.


							Jeff
Newsgroups: alt.fan.tom-robbins
From: chris@de.ZIB-Berlin.sc (Chris Cannam)
Subject: Um... Tom Robbins actually
Organization: well...
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 08:03:32 GMT


Firstly I want to apologise to the French-speaking world
for the foul crime of misquotation at the end of my last
posting. I was being particularly stupid. Anyway, read ``aux cieux''.
Somebody take me out and shoot me... (up)

Anyhow. Katy Kislitzin writes

> Just re-read Cowgirls.  don't know how many times i've read it, or when
> i fisr read it, but the last time was about ten years ago.  Frankly, I 
> can't agree that there are no likeable characters: I think Sissie and 
> Bonanza are wonderful, and the Chink is pretty cool too.

OK, OK, I give in.  A bit.  I have to admit I also thought Bonanza
was wonderful.  I didn't really take to Sissy, though.  Chink
was a great talker but (probably intentionally) a bit of a
repulsive dude.  Very Pan, though I preferred Pan.

> although a bit silly in places (e.g. chapter 100)...

I loved chapter 100.

> I had also forgotten what a femminist he is.

He is, isn't he?  Bloody right though.  Good to see a man with not
just feminist views but feminist views that make sense.

> my first encounter with women-loving-women

Not my first, but he has a good angle on it (hmmm. pun?)

> my first awareness of japanese interrment camps during wwii

Never really occurred to me!

> Cowgirls is still a great book, as far as I am concerned.  

Yup.

					Chris
					[cannam@de.ZIB-Berlin.sc]


|||  When in public poetry should take off its clothes and wave to the
|||  nearest person in sight; it should be seen in the company of
|||  thieves and lovers rather than that of journalists and publishers.
|||  On sighting mathematicians it should unhook the algebra from their
|||  minds and replace it with poetry; on sighting poets it should
|||  unhook poetry from their minds and replace it with algebra.
							- Brian Patten
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 12:47:52 EDT
From: <JAL137@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.tom-robbins
Subject: Summaries of Tom's Books

Hello all...
   I read Jitterbug Perfume a little while ago and I was wondering if anyone
 would like to post some short summaries of other books written by him.

                                                             - Jonathan
Newsgroups: alt.fan.tom-robbins
From: sjlia@Uz.nthu.edu.tw (Hi)
Subject: Hi , this is a test
Organization: National Tsing Hua University (HsinChu)
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 03:46:54 GMT


Newsgroups: alt.fan.tom-robbins
From: chris@de.ZIB-Berlin.sc (Chris Cannam)
Subject: Re: Um... Tom Robbins actually
Organization: Konrad Zuse Zentrum fuer Informationstechnik Berlin
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 14:44:04 GMT


Ah! One other thing... whilst in a record shop t'other day,
I noticed a live John Cale record on which the first track
was called `Even Cowgirls Get The Blues'... anybody know
anything about it?  (A very, very long shot)

						Chris
					 [cannam@de.ZIB-Berlin.sc]


|||  Well there are problems in these times
|||  But <wail, yelp> none of them are mine
|||  ... I'm beginning to see the light...
Newsgroups: alt.fan.tom-robbins
From: chris@de.ZIB-Berlin.sc (Chris Cannam)
Subject: Re: Um... Tom Robbins actually
Organization: Konrad Zuse Zentrum fuer Informationstechnik Berlin
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 14:39:13 GMT


I've just finished Still Life With Woodpecker. Great ending.
There are other `good bits', but on the whole I wasn't as taken
with this one as the others I've read. I can't call it weak, but
I can call it weaker. (And I shall...) I think perhaps I just
don't find pyramids as captivating as whooping cranes.

More space. Poor joke: What do you do if you see a spaceman?


						Chris
					   [cannam@de.ZIB-Berlin.sc]



					         (park in it, man...)





|||  I'm so glad you came, I'm so glad you remembered
|||  To see how we're spending our last dance together

Newsgroups: alt.fan.tom-robbins
From: wilbanks@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (Dylan Wilbanks)
Subject: It's back!!!
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 03:08:13 GMT



Hey, it's back!!! Now we can discuss girls with big thumbs and perfume 
bottles with pictures of Pan again.

Is there a book coming from him in the near future?


-- 
Dylan Wilbanks, Classics major, AND NOW Environmental Conservation!
Hobbes:"Why do we always play war and not peace?"|Currently at:
Calvin:"Too few role models."                    |Box 1143
Ren-n-Stimpy in '92! Vote for a real cartoon!    |Boulder, CO 80306
Newsgroups: alt.fan.tom-robbins
From: chris@de.ZIB-Berlin.sc (Chris Cannam)
Subject: Re: Summaries of Tom's Books
Organization: Konrad-Zuse Zentrum fuer Informationstechnik Berlin
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 15:33:41 GMT

Well, why not... I doubt if I can be of much use, mind. I generally
find his books move along similar lines to each other (not that
lines and Tom Robbins have that much in common) (this is already
bloody difficult, you know -- I keep writing things and then
thinking, no, that's not actually true, and rubbing them out again
-- isn't the idea of discussing T R in a computer newsgroup a
bit... inadequate? Still, I'm as guilty as anyone) (wail, moan)

Another Roadside Attraction: Don't know. Haven't read it. (See what
I mean about not being much help?)

Even Cowgirls Get The Blues: I can't see much point in the plot;
perhaps the point is that the plot is not the point. Suffers as a
novel, IMHO, from having no likeable characters. Gains by going
completely mad during the second half; also by the amoebae,
whooping cranes and clockworks. (The Chink's clockworks are a
magnificent creation.)

umm... which one comes next? oh, I don't know.

Still Life With Woodpecker: short, isn't it? Actually I'm only
about half-way through this one. So far I'm suspecting that it
might be better longer... space, man... (The section on `How to
make Love Stay' is, well, --)

Jitterbug Perfume you know about. I think this is the strongest
story among them, with the fewest weak points; I'm not sure that
it's the best book. Never judge a book by its story...! (You can
usually judge it by the beet, though)

Skinny Legs And All: Shame about the title. (Same goes for
Jitterbug Perfume: how come he thinks up three great titles and
two completely shite ones?) This is about as far from Even Cowgirls
Get The Blues as you can get whilst still being fundamentally the
same. It loses it at the end a bit, I feel, but otherwise it's
bastard good. Oh I don't know, it's like trying to describe
the fucking Loch Ness Monster.

Fuck it, it can't be done.

						Chris


p.s. He's quite a big thing in the States, I hear. Is it so? I
don't know about here in Berlin, but in the UK hardly anyone
seems to have heard of him -- mind you, judging by the traffic
in this newsgroup I would have said it wasn't just the UK --




|||  Notre Pere, qui etes en ciel
|||  Restez-y
					- Jacques Prevert