HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ian@nasser.eecs.nwu.edu (Ian Sutherland)
Subject: Re: Amber questoin:  Could Oberon still be alive?
Organization: EECS Department, Northwestern University
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 15:21:03 GMT

Sure, if you want to make Amber into some kind of a silly soap opera.
Better yet, just have Oberon have an evil twin :-)  (Or maybe the
twin's the GOOD one? ...)
-- 
Ian Sutherland
ian@eecs.nwu.edu

Sans Peur
From: wixer!cactus.org!wixer!pro-smof.cts.com!shiva@cactus.org (System Smof)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Farewell Horizontal
Date: 16 Nov 1992 03:13:53 -0600
Organization: The SMOF-BBS: Science Fiction Online Since 1985 [512-467-7317]
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

I've heard it said that it was halfway through the writing of Farewell
Horizontal that K.W. Jeter decided to become a horror writer instead of a
science fiction writer.
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Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: david-j.smith@analog.com
Subject: Re: Arthur C Clarke: The Ghost from the Grand Banks
Originator: smith@orion
Organization: Analog Devices, Inc.
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 23:10:42 GMT

In article <urf.721771024@sw2001> urf@icl.se (Urban F) writes:
>On the way home in the underground, I started glancing through
>it, (which led me to temporarily put away another book I was
>reading) and the next day I had finished it. "I guess this means he
>hasn't lost it, even though it's not among his very best", I said
>to myself, and am now telling you.
>
>It's written in lots of very short chapters, and I suppose you
>can say it's more about the project of raising the Titanic then
>about the characters. Even if we get to know them very sketchily,
>I don't think the character description is just superficial. It's
>rather that what little there is, is the most important things.
>

I, too, have just completed reading "Ghost of the Grand Banks", and was 
left with the same superficial feeling at it's completion.  I have a number of 
questions that seem unfulfilled, and perhaps there are others of you who can
help me.

    1.  Why does Clarke introduce fractals and the Mandelbrot Set into
        the novel in the first place?  I can find no connection whatsoever
        in the storyline for the use of fractals (other than the fact that
        they are a subject that held a great fascination for Clarke).

    2.  What part did the couple Donald & Edith have to do with the
        Nippon-Turner Corp?  Were they simply around because they had cash
        to put up for the project?  I would suspect that Nippon-Turner would
        have plenty of cash on their own.  Clarke talks of N-T actually filming the
        raising, but why have a couple around who specialize in film "cleanup"??

    3.  I felt that the introduction of the "therapist" was quite unusual, and
        barely developed.  There seemed to be no real reason to actually use this
        character.

I'd be very interested in your replies.

ALSO:  Clarke, in some of his latest works, seems to have a habit of including
       self references.  For instance, in the "new" Rama series, Richard is noted
       as saying that "Any advanced technology...."  Can anyone think of more of 
       such references??


-- 
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
   David Smith                           email: david-j.smith@analog.com
   Analog Devices, DSP Division          phone:           (617) 461-3404
   3 Technology Way, Norwood, MA 02062   FAX:             (617) 461-3010
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,alt.cyberpunk
From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Subject: Re: The Wheel of Time Series (spoilers)
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 05:34:36 GMT

adrian@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Adrian Allan Jones):
>...[Amys] tells him that he is wrong and that his mother was an Aiel.

I said I'd stop correcting people on this, but I'm too weak.

Go back and look again.  You misread it.  You've got it backwards.

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

   God helpe the man so wrapt in Errours endless traine  -- Edmund Spenser
From: dpn2@po.CWRU.Edu (Damien P. Neil)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: origins of "ansible"
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 23:13:43 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University
NNTP-Posting-Host: b63519.student.cwru.edu

In article <1992Nov22.061404.27926@leland.Stanford.EDU> wade@samish.stanford.edu (Elizabeth Wade) writes:
>Does anyone know the origins of the word "ansible" (meaning
>instantaneous communications device)?  I know Ursula Le Guin 
>used it (in _Rocannon's World_ and _The Dispossessed_ among 
>others), but did she invent it?  I also noticed it being used in 
>Orson Scott Card's _Ender_ books.  Has anyone seen it elsewhere?

I could easily be wrong, but I think Le Guin coined the term. (It was in 
_The Left Hand of Darkness_ as well.) In Card's books it is stated that the 
name was taken from some old sci-fi.
-----
Damien Neil   dpn2@po.cwru.edu    "Until somebody debugs reality, the best
Case Western Reserve University    I can do is a quick patch here and there."
CMPS/EEAP double majoring masochist               - Erik Green
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: rtbunker@beam.Princeton.EDU (Ross Thomas Bunker)
Subject: Re: OS Card: Child Abuse stories?
Originator: news@nimaster
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 02:04:02 GMT

In article <1992Nov19.220641.11651@pbhyc.PacBell.COM> djdaneh@PacBell.COM (Dan'l DanehyOakes) writes:
>>  Someone on the Internet once wrote me that Card's stories have an
>>inordinate amount of child torture and suffering.  The longer i thought
>>about that, the truer it seemed.  Anyone out there agree, and/or have an
>>explanation as to why children are made to suffer so much in his tales?
>
[paraphrase deleted...]
>To put it bluntly, this is a very deliberate, one might even say cynical, ploy 
>on Card's part to manipulate the reader's emotions, to force the reader to give
>buy-in to his situations that he hasn't earned.  
>
>Summary of discussion of how to "earn" the reader's buy-in:  present, in a
>convincing manner, a character who comes to matter to the reader because of his
>or her individual personality and values, and of a problem that matters to the 
>reader _because_ it matters to the character.  The distinction between this and
>unearned buy-in might be considered analogous to the difference between a good 
>documentary and the attention-grabbing headlines on a supermarket tabloid, the 
>latter approach, obviously, being the one analogous to Card's.
>

i can buy the fact that this Card uses this, perhaps deliberately, but i
can't count the number of times i had to remind myself that Ender was a
child in _Ender's Game_.  It's not something that was constantly pulling my
emotions.  i think that drawing an analogy to supermarket tabloids for Card
is a bit harsh.  There is a lot more there.  He certainly "earned" my buy-in
by the definition you give.

Certainly, when you stop and realize these are children it grabs you more,
but i think that is an extremely devious use of the idea, not a cheap
manipulation.

I haven't read the Alvin Maker series yet, so that may have more.

my 2 cents...well, i'm a poor college student, make it 1.
:-)


-- 
Life is not a zero sum game.
:)ross ::Internet-- rtbunker@princeton.edu ::: Bitnet-- rtbunker@pucc.bitnet::
From: hunt@dodo.cis.ohio-state.edu (kevin hunt)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: DRACULA
Date: 16 Nov 92 19:03:03 GMT
Article-I.D.: cis.1992Nov16.190303.3933
Distribution: na
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept. of Computer and Info. Science



     For those who havent yet seen DRACULA, I strongly suggest that you
read the book first.  This way you will know what to expect, and will
understand why the Count can do what he does and why he does it.  The
movie can be confusing at times without this information.

     And for all those people who like the vampire type genre, I strongly
suggest the book "DRACULA UNBOUND" by Brian Aldiss.  A good read dispite
the fact that I guessed the ending perfectly when I still had 70 pages to
go.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: solovay@netcom.com (Andrew M. Solovay)
Subject: Re: Ecologies Wanted
Organization: Smiley Abolition Front
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 04:59:27 GMT

In article <1992Nov18.141235.15238@HAN.Paramax.COM> tom@HAN.Paramax.COM (Tom Jewell) writes:
>Can anyone recommend another source where a complete
>ecosystem is described?

Check Orson Scott Card's "Speaker for the Dead" / "Xenocide". He
spends a lot of time on the Lusitanian ecosystem, which contains
two dozen or so species *in toto*. It's sort of gimmicky, so it
may not be what you're looking for.
-- 
Andrew Michael Solovay    

"We know that Solovay is a misogynist and an idiot..."
                --Melinda Shore
Xref: sparky rec.arts.sf.written:15039 alt.cyberpunk:5942
From: bd@fluent@dartmouth.EDU (Brice Dowaliby)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: Diamond-hard SF
Date: 19 Nov 92 15:25:45 GMT
Reply-To: bd%fluent@dartmouth.EDU
Distribution: usa
Organization: Fluent Inc., Lebanon NH

szabo@techbook.com (Nick Szabo) writes:

>I second this, and go further.  Characters and plot are the
>exemplar components of mundane fiction.  I do not care to see them 
>at all, unless they are important to the technology or to the artistry 
>of the story -- and almost always these days the artistry of the story 
>is defecated upon by the introduction of mundane characters or plot 
>elements, polluting the potentially fertile vast tracts of the SF 
>landscape with the toxic reek of an inferiority complex to mundane 
>genres.

>For example: a poetic description of weird, original psychoactive 
>effects of a genetically engineered aphrodisiac would be quite 
>interesting.  The mere unaugmented desire of character X to take character 
>Y to bed I could read about in other genres, or live out in real life 
>myself for that matter, which is quite preferable to the fiction.  
>In good diamond-hard SF, mundane characterization or plot movement 
>is edited out, right along with the bad grammar, violations of the 
>laws of physics, cliched ideas, engineering illiteracy, economic
>illiteracy, and other crap that we should not have to put up with.

How is this different from the New Age stuff in the 70's?
-- 
   Brice Dowaliby, Fluent Inc., 10 Cavendish Court, Lebanon, NH  03766
                         bd%fluent@dartmouth.edu        
             I don't speak for them, they don't speak for me
                              DoD # 0698
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: kroth@david.wheaton.edu (Ken Roth)
Subject: Re: Raymond Feist
Organization: Wheaton College, IL
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 08:38:51 GMT

In article <1992Nov16.161349.11324@cs.hope.edu> rossing@cs.hope.edu writes:
>A friend of mine has heard that there's a new book out by Raymond E. Feist and
>wants to know if this is true, and if so, the title and whether it is part of
>Riftwar series or the Daughter/Servant of the Empire books.
>Anyone know anything?  Thanks!

He has the third book of the 'Daughter of the Empire Series' due out somewhat
soon.  Lesse, what is it called....hmm.

I believe it starts with an 'S', but to be honest I cannot remember.  Sorry.

Also, to those reading out in netland, what did you think of Fairie Tale?
(Yikes, did I get the title right....??.?)  Anyway, if you read his stuff you
will know the one I mean.

Ken

>Eric Rossing        | "What are you afraid of, a fate worse than death?"
>rossing@cs.hope.edu | "No, just death!  Isn't that enough?!?"


-- 
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
kroth@wheaton.uucp  ||  uunet!tellab5!wheaton!kroth  ||  They call me Gryfalia  
   "We believe, we believe, 'cause we felt it burning in our hearts"--77's
  "He is no fool who loses what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose."
From: wixer!cactus.org!wixer!pro-smof.cts.com!shiva@cactus.org (System Smof)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Diamond-hard SF
Date: 22 Nov 1992 20:51:03 -0600
Organization: The SMOF-BBS: Science Fiction Online Since 1985 [512-467-7317]
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

lnh@soliton.physics.arizona.edu (sometimes a Wombat) writes:

>jessec@yang.earlham.edu writes:
>> whatever it is that is not "diamond-hard SF"-- "spongy-soft SF", 
>> perhaps?
>
>Talcum-soft SF.
>
>	Larry "Helpful" Hammer
>--
>
>LNH@physics.arizona.edu   \   Hidden harmony is better than manifest.
>GEnie: L.HAMMER2           \      -- Heraclitus, #47

Try Nerf SF.
 ____________________________________________________________________
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

Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: mary@tang.ai.mit.edu (Mary S. Lee)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: _Swordspoint_ by Ellen Kushner
Date: 16 Nov 1992 20:27:20 GMT
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
NNTP-Posting-Host: tang.ai.mit.edu

In article <1992Nov13.050448.2705@u.washington.edu>
sannuti@math.washington.edu (Arun Meda Sannuti) writes:
>
>	Just an opinion, but _Swordspoint_ by Ellen Kushner is one of
>the best fantasy books I have ever read.  Highly recommended.

I also highly recommend this book.  It's one of the most entertaining
fantasy novels I've read, and I liked the prose style (which I found
reminiscent of Jane Austen).  

The only negative thing I would say about "Swordspoint" is that, while
delightful to read, it is a relatively insubstantial tale.  It neither
made me think deeply as I read it, nor did it resonate in my mind
afterward.


Mary Soon Lee    (mary@ai.mit.edu)
From: MPalandri.SD@XEROX.COM
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: ASH OCK - Christopher Hinz
Date: 23 Nov 92 21:25:37 GMT


>>
I'm almost finished reading _ASH OCK_, Hinz's sequel to _Liege Killer_.
Terrific book. Is there a sequel out? [I haven't read the first book, but
that hasn't made for any difficulties with _ASH OCK_]
<<

I believe the sequel is called _PARATWA_.

I'm still kicking myself for letting them go in hardback and trying to
wait for the paperbacks. I haven't heard a peep either way in well over
a year now.

Maybe I'll try the local library...

Mark.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: wogg0743@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (William Shakespeare)
Subject: Re: raymond reviews
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Distribution: rec
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 05:29:55 GMT

>     Whatever happened to the Raymond Reviews? Did he lose his net
>feed,
>or doesn't he have the time to read all those books anymore? I always
>wondered how he managed.
>
>Donald Simmons

Yeah, I wonder the same thing.  Where's Raymond?  Bring back Raymond.


-- 
William ("Shakespeare") Gulstad          /  So where are the C.S. babes?
wogg0743@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu                /  Joni Mitchell for President!
I vote, so I can complain!               /  Did you vote?  Then don't complain!
Republican is the opposite of democracy! /  Tune in, drop out, log on.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: yngvar@imr.no (Yngvar Foelling)
Subject: Re: Arthur C Clarke: The Ghost from the Grand Banks
Organization: Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway.
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 19:57:14 GMT

In article <1992Nov20.231042.18357@analog.com>, david-j.smith@analog.com writes:

|> ALSO:  Clarke, in some of his latest works, seems to have a habit of including
|>        self references.  For instance, in the "new" Rama series, Richard is noted
|>        as saying that "Any advanced technology...."  Can anyone think of more of 
|>        such references??
|> 

In Rama II, Richard also makes a vague reference to a science fiction book he
once read, which seems to have been 2001.

It kinda makes me wonder.  If he searched old book stores, would he find his own
story revealed?
-- 
ISO 8859-1: Yngvar Flling  | Private address:
ASCII:      Yngvar Foelling | Tertnesveien 121
E-mail:     yngvar@imr.no   | N-5084 Tertnes
From: steinly@topaz.ucsc.edu (Steinn Sigurdsson)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Ecologies Wanted
Date: 23 Nov 92 21:08:08 GMT
	<By1ynH.93F@helios.physics.utoronto.ca>
	<1992Nov23.172026.23983@reed.edu>
Organization: Lick Observatory/UCO
NNTP-Posting-Host: topaz.ucsc.edu
In-reply-to: todd@reed.edu's message of 23 Nov 92 17:20:26 GMT


The Screwfly Solution by Tiptree :-)
From: jkusters@zeus.calpoly.edu (Chrome Jester)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Amber questoin: Could Oberon still be alive?
Date: 21 Nov 92 20:30:11 GMT
Organization: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Gawd, I hope my gamers aren't gonna be reading this....  :)

mwp@iconix.oz.au (Michael Paddon) divulges:
->
->This raises a number of questions:
->   (1) How was Dworkin's relationship to the Pattern altered by all this?

Hm, good one.  With the re-inscribing, it would probably become more a part
of Oberon that it is of Dworkin.  What the results of this are, I have no
idea...

->   (2) Why did Oberon fake his death (remember he is a subtle and shifty
->       bastard at the best of times)?

My guess (and what I'm basing part of my role-playing campaign on) is that
Oberon suspected that something more was afoot in the Courts.  Perhaps he
thought they were more involved than was apparent?  Perhaps the Courts saw
the war as only a skirmish and are going to be preparing for an even greater
assault?  In both cases, Oberon would probably want to be a LOT more
involved.  I'm writing things up so that Dworkin and Oberon worked some
powerful shape-shifting magic to allow Oberon to infiltrate the Courts and
move to a position of respect and/or authority so as to have a better chance
of hearing what, if any, plans there are to assault Amber.

That's just what I was thinking.  I'm in the middle of reading the books
again (5th time?) and if I have any other insights, perhaps we can talk
again...

Thanks!

JOhn.

-- 
/-John A Kusters, jr.--------------------------------------------------- ______
| jkusters@ares.calpoly.edu   b0- f- w g- s-- r p++                      \    /
Silence keeps us all in darkness, We can't change things overnight;       \  /
But we can shed a little light, Be Political not Polite! -Romanovsky & Phillips
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,alt.horror
From: fscem1@acad3.alaska.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Looking for short story; spoilers, I suppose
Date: 16 Nov 92 23:26:13 GMT
Organization: University of Alaska Fairbanks



	I'm looking for a short story for a friend of mine.  I've
never read it, and she hasn't for a while, so the details are fuzzy,
but this is the basic storyline:

	Two children meet a strange little boy who teaches them how
to fly.  One day one of the kids is showing off at school, and begins
flying on (or rather, off) the playground.  The other kids want to
learn to fly, and the strange little boy teaches them.  One day a 
teacher catches the kids flying, and instead of getting mad, just 
watches with utter longing.  The strange little boy offers to try
to teach her to fly, but she says she's too old and wishes that he'd
been there when she was little.  In the end of the story, the little
boy goes away.

	Does this ring any bells?  Like I said, I 've never read it,
but I figured somebody out there in newsland probably has.  Post or
e-mail, I'm not particular. 

Thanks in advance!

Cheers, 
Catie
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: dstein@sylmar.math.ucla.edu (David Stein)
Subject: Re: Algis Budrys HARD LANDING     (spoilers?)
Reply-To: dstein@sylmar.math.ucla.edu (David Stein)
Organization: UCLA Mathematics Department
Distribution: rec
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 07:55:32 GMT

  Joseph Brenner asks what was Budrys trying to say in HARD LANDING.
I too wondered about the novel.  I'm not sure if Budrys was trying to 
_say_ something, but I'm positive that he tried to _express_ something, 
namely the disintegration of human [sic] bounds under the strain of
circumstances, and the subsequent experience of alienation.  I tend to 
think of the book more in psychological terms then in terms of sci-fi.  

 - David

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm not a native speaker of English, so I'm not sure what I wrote.
Flames will be ignored unless you post them in perfect Czech.
================================ - David (the metamathician) - ===
From: barnejd@wkuvx1.bitnet
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Asprin's Next Phule Book?
Date: 17 Nov 92 11:59:46 CST
Organization: Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY

Does anybody know if Robert Asprin has a planned sequel to Phule's
Paradise coming out?  If so, when? Thanks.

-Drizzt
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: morin@noao.edu (Marg Morin)
Subject: Re: Brust, P.J.F., and Cat's Laughing
Organization: National Optical Astronomy Observatories, Tucson AZ
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 17:18:56 GMT

In article <1ejs1rINN81q@agate.berkeley.edu> cozzlab@garnet.berkeley.edu () writes:
>In article <By172z.7o4@rice.edu> harsh@owlnet.rice.edu (Anish Harshad Masharani) writes:
>>Have any of you heard anything by Cat's Laughing?
>>It's a group that is supposedly made up of Stephen Brust, Emma Bull, and some
>>other folks.
>
>As in rock group.  I believe there's mention of it in the back of some
>of Bull's books (Bone Dance, for instance), with instructions on how to
>send away for tapes.
>

Is this the same rock group in which Stephen King was invited to participate?
I saw him on Whoopi Goldberg's show last Friday and they mentioned him
playing guitar, but I didn't catch the name of a group or album.

-- 
 The Seeker		peace to those who come in peace 
 (morin@noao.edu)	    pity to those who don't 
Xref: sparky rec.arts.sf.written:15090 alt.cyberpunk:5994