HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir)
Subject: Vol VII, The Halliford Edition.
Organization: Stanford Exploration Project
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 21:26:59 GMT

I find I am now missing Volume VII of the Halliford Edition of the
works of Thomas Love Peacock, and I'd much appreciate anyone's help
in finding me a relacement. It might be either from the original 1927
edition published by Constable & Co. Ltd., or from the facsimile edition
put out by AMS Press, Inc., New York (1967).

					Francis Muir

francis@sep.stanford.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: roger@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Roger Lustig)
Subject: Re: Hist/disp on hol/Laura
Originator: news@ernie.Princeton.EDU
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 04:00:17 GMT

In article <1992Apr09.163750.49761@cs.cmu.edu>
 kji+@SPEECH1.CS.CMU.EDU (Kathi Iannamico) writes:
>Roger(I can't remember your name; I think that was it), my original
>post dealt with literature that grossly underestimates the number of
>jews killed by the Nazis.  I even had a legitimate reponse to it.

On the off chance that you're replying to me, I'll respond to this.

>The post you refer to had nothing to do with you, so stay out of it.

The post that whoever-it-was responded to was posted on USENET.  That's
an invitation to comment, not a private correspondence.

>Anyway, I couldn't possibly argue with anyone who uses such contrived 90s
>terms as "netiquette".  What a loser.

"Nettiquette", while a neologism, is hardly contrived.  It is a
contraction, something our language has had for about a millennium.  It
is also something the meaning of which seems to be obscure to you.  

For instance, it is poor nettiquette to post an article that addresses a
single person whose name you haven't bothered to remember.  

It is poor nettiquette to flame someone for using USENET as it was
intended: for colloquy and response.

It is poor nettiquette to use cheap 90's terms like "what a loser" in
reference to people who use the net in perfectly normal ways.

For more, and very interesting, reading on this subject, try
new.announce.newusers.  It has a whole posting on nettiquette.  You may
learn something.

>If you have anything else to say to me, send me email, and I'll
>promptly ignore it.

Oh, my!  Big words, here.  Anything else you'd like to say, so we may
form an impression of you?  Or have you scheduled the next few hours for
closing your eyes, sticking your fingers in your ears, and shouting so
you can't hear anything?  

Roger Lustig

PS: if it was some other Roger who brought this on, apologize to *him*.

R
>


Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: root@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (System PRIVILEGED Account)
Subject: Want to read something funny ? 
Reply-To: root@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at
Organization: Technische Universitaet Wien
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 09:37:52 GMT


 Want to read a real funny crime-novel?
Go for Carl Hiaasen. There are three books available as PAN-paperbacks:

 Double Whammy
 Tourist Season
 Skin Tight

If you've read one of them already, I'd like to read your comments about.

Thomas

-- 


                          Thomas Hollunder  thomas@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at
          Institute for Computer Languages  Phone: +43 222 58801 4476
           University of Technology Vienna         +43 663 81 87 709
Argentinierstr. 8/13, 1040 Vienna, Austria  Fax:   +43 222 505 38 78
From: tittle@ics.uci.edu (Cindy Tittle Moore)
Subject: Re: ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Reply-To: tittle@ics.uci.edu (Cindy Tittle Moore)
Organization: ICS Dept., UC Irvine
Date: 13 Apr 92 15:09:16 GMT

In <1992Apr13.133700.886@morrow.stanford.edu> francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir) writes:

>Bonita Kale writes:

>	"Rubbers" is a nuisance, since there really is no other word for
>	what you put on over your shoes, unless you want to get into
>	"rubber overshoes" and sound weird.  And yet the word has taken
>	on a distinct sexual tinge.

>Aha! Here the British can be helpful. Their word -- or one of their words --
>for these things is galoshes. This is so excellent a word that you should
>consider importing it. A. A. Milne's son, Christopher Robin (obligatory
>literary reference) wore them.

Aha!  One of my favorite words!  I get funny looks (it sounds
old-fashioned on this side of the Atlantic, I guess), but it sounds
just right for what it does.  And it even sounds great as a verb (go
ahead, wince): galoshing through the rain...

One importer,
--Cindy
--
Cindy Tittle Moore

Internet: tittle@ics.uci.edu       | BITNET: cltittle@uci.bitnet
UUCP:     ...!ucbvax!ucivax!tittle | Usnail: PO Box 4188, Irvine CA, 92716
From: Leroy.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: _Gravity's_Rainbow_
Date: 8 Apr 92 02:15:42 GMT

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

>In article <leroy.702618840@syzygy>, Leroy writes:
>>    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. ...

      I'll suggest Martin Amis and Don DeLillo for paranoia, and Patrick White's
Vivisector for "The impossible quest" (whatever _that_ is) and perfectly 
realised hallucinations without any of the pretentious slop Pynchon dishes out.

      Actually, I'll recommend the Vivisector anyhow. It's wonderful.

>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.

     Some people think sex in books is only "real" if you leave out the 
punctuation (and then they and then they and ooooooh!). Only in California.

>>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.

     I'll say now (to get it all out in the open): I've only read Vineland. 
And, having hated that with a passion, I don't understand what you're talking
about: it's all just one big, irrelevant incident; I couldn't find a theme - or
multiple themes, or any possible reason to continue reading the thing.
   
     It's important to have something to say when you write, or so I say.

--
-- Leroy@socs.uts.edu.au                    "Porn-o-graphic! Un-American Trash!"
                                                    -- Trailer, the Naked Lunch.
From: barb@zurich.ai.mit.edu (Barb Miller)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Will it decrease this book's value to read it?
Date: 16 Apr 92 01:20:57 GMT
Reply-To: barb@zurich.ai.mit.edu
Distribution: rec.arts.books
Organization: M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Lab.

The situation is this: in a second-hand bookstore today I grew
attached to a paperback of _La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri_.
It was published in Milan in 1952 on browning, acidy paper, but it is
very charming, with a pretty cover and nice black and white plates
illustrating the various scenes of the three poems.  The previous
owner of the book, Charles K. van something-or-other, obviously never
read the book because it is completely uncut (i.e., each set of 4
pages is joined together at the top).  

This question is not terribly critical, since I invested all of $5.50
in this book, but I'd like to know whether, in general, cutting an
uncut book like this decreases its value.  In a practical sense, my
understanding of Italian is so limited I should really be reading it
in a parallel edition if not a straight-out translation; however, the
book seems to have been made with so much love for the language and
the poet that it seems a shame not to try to read it (with a
translation at hand).  Still, if the book might actually have greater
value if left uncut, that is a consideration in light of how much I'm
actually likely to get out of reading it.

So the next question is: assuming I do decide to spend some of my
leisure hours this summer following the poet on his journey, can
someone out there with more familiarity with books of a bygone age
clue me in as to whether there is a recommended technique for reading
a book which has to be cut as it is read?  Are certain tools better
than others?  Does one cut the equivalent of a chapter at a time and
then read it all, or is it customary to cut each page apart as one
comes to it, thus using the book as its own bookmark, as it were?

Surely someone out there has just been waiting for someone to ask
these momentous questions, so that you may share your knowledge with
the world.  I look forward to your response.

Barb Miller
From: vance@speech.sri.com (Vance Maverick)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: read any good books lately?
Date: 9 Apr 92 17:46:44 GMT
Article-I.D.: kyoto.VANCE.92Apr9104644
	<1992Apr8.125817.11707@cs.cornell.edu>
	<odsmaVe00aw6QNWkwo@andrew.cmu.edu>
Organization: Speech recognition group, SRI
In-reply-to: jg4n+@andrew.cmu.edu's message of 8 Apr 92 17:13:05 GMT


In article <odsmaVe00aw6QNWkwo@andrew.cmu.edu> jg4n+@andrew.cmu.edu (Julie Marie Goodliffe) writes:

   I'd like to hear what anyone else thought about _Vox_.

Well, this is not entirely apropos, but here goes: you inspire me to
reattempt my followup to this thread, which apparently never escaped
SRI.

In article <1992Apr6.225452.29417@cs.yale.edu> loosemore-sandra@CS.YALE.EDU (Sandra Loosemore) writes:

   This newsgroup has seemed kind of slow lately.  Is everybody too busy
   reading books to post here any more?  :-)  What have you all been
   reading?  

Following up on hints collected here, I got into Nicholson Baker about
a month ago.  I began with _Room Temperature_, proceeding next to _U
and I_ and then to _The Mezzanine_.  None of these is consistently
good, but I found them all fascinating -- in musical terms, he seems
to be getting his chops together, and they're very impressive chops.
Perhaps _U and I_ shows the most technical wizardry: he has a great
time, for instance, just managing the transitions from chapter to
chapter.  The only writer I've come across in a while who can make me
laugh just by control of diction -- despite his adulation of Updike,
this reminds me more of Donald Barthelme (thanks be!).  _VOX_, still
up there on the best-seller lists, still out only in hardcover with
slimy black wrap, seems to me less interesting, from browses in the
bookstore; but I'm glad he's pushing himself on to try new things.

On a more esoteric, more recent, and less interesting front, Cid
Corman's _Where Were We Now_ (Seattle: Broken Moon, 1991), a small
miscellany of essays and poetry.  The flashes of interest and the
sometimes elegant writing don't really outweigh the insufferable arty
pose.  Typography gripe: why does Schneidler, the (rather arty) face
used in this book, have such an incongruous capital O?  All the other
letters (including lower-case o) are carefully modulated in stroke
width, but O is a perfect circle, as if traced with compass and
drafting pen, like a hole punched in the paper....

And in the Not Recommended category (pace A. S. Byatt), _The Ring and
The Book_.  A taste thing, I suppose; I can *almost* imagine being
gripped by the qualities of Browning's verse that strike me now as
merely facile.

FWIW,
	Vance
From: smc@cs.hw.ac.uk (Steve McGowan)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Date: 15 Apr 92 09:15:52 GMT
Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland


	I'm roughly half-way through Wounded Knee, and have been reading about
	the atrocities committed on the Indians (in particular the
	Cheyennes) during the American Civil War by the American soldiers.

	Now my question (which is at a slight tangent to the above book) is
	does anyone know of a good book on the conflict which started this
	war, more specifically with regard to the differences between the
	North and South on the slave trade.


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

Soda...........soda...........soda............. And what'll you have, Stanley?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,soc.culture.british
From: francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir)
Subject: Re: ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE
Organization: Stanford Exploration Project
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 13:15:42 GMT

WOOPS! I accidentally posted a partly edited interjection to the 
Zeleny/Shoun duolog. It was deliciously tempting, but I had a moment
of remorse. Obviously I was flagrantly derelict in my original posting, 
but, curiously, no one has referred to my much more bookish second
posting on C S Lewis. One of the problems I have with Lewis and those he
has influenced is that they read William of Wykeham's dictum, Manners
Maketh the Man, in a modern literal sense. This is the stamp of those
who did not go to one or both of the great Wykehamist institutions,
Winchester and New, but somehow wished they had. In England, open a can
of worms and out will writhe products of third-rate Public Schools.

						Francis Muir

francis@sep.stanford.edu
From: vjmurphy@carina.unm.edu (Phred T. Platypus)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Julian May
Date: 7 Apr 92 03:42:05 GMT
Article-I.D.: lynx.fppjkmh
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <egolf.702608178@coronado.ecn.purdue.edu> egolf@coronado.ecn.purdue.edu (Stephen R Egolf) writes:
>glock@glock.chip.cba.ufl.edu (Joe Granto (BACL)) writes:
>
>
>There is no third book.  There are two books (METACONCERT and INTERVENTION)
>which were released as one in hardback.  They cover the events preceding 
>the intervention.

   Close, but not correct.  The series is "Intervention." The two books
 that make up the series are "Surveillance" and "Metaconcert."  




-- 
"You ask me if sex is one of the most  _\_\    _/_/     Phred Platypus
 important things in life?  Absolutely. _\_\  _/_/  Grammarian of Vengeance
 But the lack of it is even likelier     _\_\_/_/ [ vjmurphy@carina.unm.edu ]
 to drive you nuts." -- Harlan Ellison    _\_/       Vincent J. Murphy
From: ed@wente.llnl.gov (Ed Suranyi)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Asimov's nonfiction
Date: 11 Apr 92 16:32:04 GMT
Organization: UC Davis Dept of Applied Science at LLNL

Since Isaac Asimov died a few days ago, I thought I'd see if anyone
wants to get into a discussion about his nonfiction.  His fiction has
been discussed quite a bit on, e.g., the sf groups.

I'll just start by listing some of my favorites, with a few comments when
I feel they're appropriate.

Science:

All of his collections of essays from _Fantasy and Science Fiction_,
     especially "The Planet That Wasn't", "From Earth to Heaven", and
     "Of Time and Space and Other Things"
"The New Intelligent Man's Guide to Science" -- I must have read Vol. 1,
     "The Physical Sciences" about ten times in the last years of
     elementary school.
"Inside the Atom" -- I presented a book report on this to my fourth grade
     class.  My teacher had to stop me before the end because I was going
     over the heads of the other pupils.  I couldn't understand why I
     couldn't explain to the class what had been so easy for Asimov to
     explain to me!
"The Human Body" -- I notice that a revised paperback version of this has
     just come out.
"The Human Brain"
"The Universe -- From Flat Earth to Quasar"
"Building Blocks of the Universe"
"The Ends of the Earth -- The Polar Regions"
"The Wellsprings of Life"
"The Genetic Code"
"The World of Carbon" and "The World of Nitrogen" -- What a terrific
     introduction to organic chemistry this pair makes!
"A Choice of Catastrophes"
"Understanding Physics", recently reissued in a revised edition as "The
     History of Physics".

Other:

"Words on the Map" -- I'm a geography book, and this is probably my
     favorite book on the subject.
"Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare"
"In Joy Still Felt", the first volume of his autobiography.

Ed
ed@wente.llnl.gov
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: bab2@rigel.uucp (80700s-barter)
Subject: Re: King Arthur, many versions
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 92 14:55:42 GMT

In article <9204052016.AA09287@lib.uwo.ca>, Margaret Martin Gardiner <gardiner@lib.uwo.ca> writes:
> 	Child of the Northern Spring - Persia Woolley (about
> Guinevere).
There are two more books in this series:
        Queen of the Summer Stars
        Guinevere

They follow Guinevere through her life (childhood, adulthood, old age)
and are from her perspective.  I really liked them a lot.
> 
> Margaret MG

Beth


Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:7911 soc.culture.indian:14222
From: riddle@is.rice.edu (Prentiss Riddle)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Mail-order sources for Indian books?
Date: 5 Apr 1992 18:24:44 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Ministry of Information, William's Marsh

Only a couple of people had an answer to my request for mail-order
sources for Indian fiction.  They both recommended South Asia Books.
Although they said it mostly handles academic publications, it also
carries literature.

	South Asia Books
	P.O. Box 502
	Columbia, Missouri 65205
	(314) 474 0116

Another source that's worth mentioning here is the book service of the
Asia Society.  I don't know whether they have a comprehensive catalog,
but I receive an occasional flyer offering some recent releases.  Since
they cover all of Asia and offer art books, history, cookbooks and
children's books as well as literature, there are usually only a couple
of South Asian fiction titles per issue.

	The Asia Society/"Bookmarks"
	725 Park Ave.
	New York, NY 10021

If anyone knows of any other sources, please let me know.

-- Prentiss Riddle ("aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada") riddle@rice.edu
-- Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: Gibson's new book
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 18:06:06 GMT

In article <wood.703256638@jfred> wood@jfred.siemens.com (Jim Wood) writes:

>As a sidenote, is this the *same* William Gibson who wrote the play
>"The Miracle Worker," about Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan, back in
>the late 1950's?

No. The William Gibson who writes sf is in his 40s. While he may be
prodigiously talented, he wasn't quite that much of a prodigy.


--Mike



-- 
Mike Godwin,     |"Anyone who has obeyed nature by transmitting a piece
mnemonic@eff.org | of gossip experiences the explosive relief that
(617) 864-0665   | accompanies the satisfying of a primary need."
EFF, Cambridge   |          --Primo Levi
From: jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: ISBN's on books - format of
Date: 15 Apr 92 16:57:12 GMT
Reply-To: jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin)
Organization: COMANDOS Project, Glesga Yoonie

andy@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Andy Clews) wrote:
> I'm in the process of making an inventory of all my books, and I'm
> recording the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) of all those
> that have one.
> The trouble is that the format is rather inconsistent. The majority
> are coded in this format:
> 		0-123-45678-9
> but some are coded like
> 		0-12-345678-9
> or
> 		12-3456-789
> and there are several other variations.
> Does anyone know the definitive format for ISBN's and what the various
> parts of the number stand for, and how numbers are assigned?

The partions are not divided into fixed lengths, except for the final check
digit (undecimal, with X for 10).  The first field is a language or country
code (Britain/US 0, Germany 3,... it doesn't seem very consistent; I don't
think books in Gaelic or Welsh get a distinct code.  It would have been far
more logical to integrate this with international telephone codes).  The
second field is a publisher code.  The third field numbers the individual
title (different numbers for different formats).  In practice it works out
that large publishers use short publisher codes, giving them a larger
address space for book titles.  I don't know whether this is intentional or
a historical artifact of large publishers having applied for their ISBN
code first.  I seem to remember one small publisher getting big and
shortening their code: I forget who.  The fourth field is the check digit;
something like ((sum for i from 1 to 9) i * digit [i]) modulo 11.

The book world's answer to the Intel 8086's addressing scheme.

Publishers can assign their own numbers within their bit of the overall
address space but they have to tell their local library of record what
they've done (and supply a sample copy).  Publisher codes are allocated
by the International Book Numbering Association (I think); this process
is managed by libraries of record within each country.  In Scotland these
are the Mitchell Library, Glasgow and the National Library of Scotland,
Edinburgh; I suppose the British Library is one too, but I don't know what
other English ones there might be.

-- 
--  Jack Campin    room G092, Computing Science Department, Glasgow University,
17 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8RZ, Scotland   TEL: 041 339 8855 x6854 (work)
INTERNET: jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk or via nsfnet-relay.ac.uk    FAX: 041 330 4913
BANG!net: via mcsun and uknet     BITNET: via UKACRL    UUCP: jack@glasgow.uucp
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: Q about _Gravity's_Rainbow_
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1992 22:17:25 GMT

In article <23MAR199217284792@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov> packer@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov (Charles Packer) writes:

>There was a discussion of Pynchon's =Gravity's Rainbow=
>here recently. Would someone be so kind as to post
>something about the plot? Did it feature the observation
>by one of the characters of some hitherto unknown
>physical phenomenon? The title, of course, hints at a
>spectral distribution of gravity waves.

"Gravity's rainbow" is the parabola described by the trajectory of a V-2
rocket.

I can't imagine how a plot summary would do anyone any good at all in
appreciating GR.



--Mike





-- 
Mike Godwin,     |"Les vrais paradis sont les paradis
mnemonic@eff.org | qu'on a perdus."
(617) 864-0665   | 
EFF, Cambridge   |          --Marcel Proust
From: jlacey@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (james.w.lacey)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Vox
Date: 9 Apr 92 16:42:53 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T

In article <Udt66Ky00WBKE3U21Z@andrew.cmu.edu> jg4n+@andrew.cmu.edu (Julie Marie Goodliffe) writes:
>Jenn writes 
>	
> 
>	And I'm checking out Nicholson Baker's _Vox_ as soon as it gets
>	returned to the library.
> 
> 
>I'm not sure about _Vox_.   It seemed to be about masterbation.  I
>suppose that you could read more than that, but I don't think that there
>is much more.  It presents an irony about people being so willing to
>discuss their deepest fantasies and at the same time not want to reveal
>the city that they live in.   It also is very interesting the way that
>two people can be so comfortable discussing their sex lives and
>masterbation habits just because of the medium that the conversation
>exists in.  I suppose that it also represents the safe sex of the 90's,
>and it seems for these two people to be very very good.   
> 
>	I'd like to hear what anyone else thought about _Vox_.

In a word: disappointed.  I kept waiting for something to happen,
or some revelation of the characters, but didnt find it.
Perhaps the reason _Vox_ is leading the best sellers is that
there is an untapped market for fantasy-porn that has previously
been limited to "behind the counter" publications.  I saw a
tounge-in-cheek article by a porn writer in a Washington, DC
weekly complaining about the popularity of  _Vox_, and wondering
why he hadnt made the best sellers list with his own similar
stories.

-- 
Jim Lacey          
my own opinions    
email:  att!cbnewsl!jlacey  or  jlacey@cbnewsl.cb.att.com