HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir)
Subject: Electronic books: the argument from gravity
Organization: Stanford Exploration Project
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 15:46:54 GMT

The October '92 issue of *PUBLISH* magazine contains an interesting article 
on the Voyager Company, publishers of the dozen or so Expanded Books for
Apple's PowerBook portable computers. Briefly, they make several arguments
of which the first is from gravity. It is a lot lighter to carry around than
a dozen hard-copies. For me there would be more interest in their various
search capabilities, but they have an automatic bookmark among other goodies.
For example, you can elect to underline or make bold any text. The first
book was *The Annotated Alice*, but I think they have some Joyce. A nice,
scholarly notion. Truly interactive. I think *The Picture of Dorian Gray*
was their second. Now let's see...where are they...Ah. 

	The Voyager Company
	1351 Pacific coast highway
	Santa Monica CA 90401
	(310) 451-1383

h yes. *Alice* has the Illustrious Tenniel there, of course.

							Fido

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: A.S. Byatt's "Possession"
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 16:43:16 GMT

In article <1992Oct2.065127.3478@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> casley@Tarski.Stanford.EDU (Ross Casley) writes:
>I read "Possession" recently and enjoyed it a great deal, but I
>find myself worried by a trivial question.  In the edition I read
>(Random House, New York, 1990) the 20th century hero keeps changing
>names.  He is sometimes Roland Mitchell and other times Roland Michell.
>I thought that this was nothing more than sloppy proofreading until I
>noticed that one of Ash's pallbearers was "Sir Rowland Michaels."  Then
>I began to suspect some elaborate joke.  Does anybody know the punchline?

The two spellings of the 20th-century protagonist's name are indeed
attributable to bad copy editing (perhaps only in the American edition).

"Sir Rowland Michaels," however, is a joke of Byatt's.


--Mike




-- 
Mike Godwin,    |"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact 
mnemonic@eff.org| of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, 
(617) 864-0665  | both are transformed."
EFF, Cambridge  |                           --Carl Jung 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,alt.censorship
From: ia4@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Imran Anwar)
Subject: Re: Rushdie
Reply-To: ia4@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Imran Anwar)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 03:42:40 GMT

In article <1992Sep28.012610.21079@midway.uchicago.edu> thf2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>Followups out of misc.legal
>
>In article <1992Sep27.231121.26653@news.columbia.edu> ia4@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Imran Anwar) writes:
>>In response to Mike Godwin, I appreciate the information about Iron Dream
>>but must beg to differ on the pont that Rushdie was not trying to be
>>offensive.
>>
>>As aatter of fact that is exactly the reason I do not like his book, it
>>was a deliberate attempt to malign and upset Muslims.
>
>You could make a good living turning that mind-reading ability of yours
>to the stock market.
>-- 
>           .. . . .  .  .   .    .     .     .    .   .  .  . . . ..
>          ted frank | thf2@midway.uchicago.edu | standard disclaimers
>         the university of chicago law school, chicago, illinois 60637


Sorry if in your case I draw a total blank :-)

Imran
From: proberts@informix.com (Paul Roberts)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Searching for Robert Musil's "Man Without Qualities"
Date: 29 Sep 92 01:35:51 GMT
Organization: Informix Software, Inc.

I have the Picador set. It is a great book. I feel sure I have seen
it in bookstores occasionally. I am also sure that it is still in
print in Britain (Picador is British, I believe). If all else
fails, maybe you could order it directly from a British bookstore/
publisher. I can give you Picador's address if you wish.

Paul


In article <1992Sep26.085647.25230@reed.edu> gsinghma@reed.edu (Gaurav Singhmar) writes:
>There is a book by a turn-of-the-century Austrian author called "The Man  
>Without Qualities" (or "Die Mann ohne Eigenschaften", in the original).  
>Unfortunately (and incomprehensibly), it is mostly out of print. I say  
>mostly because the first part of the three volumes (in the original German  
>I am told that there were four volumes but Picador Classics claimed to  
>have it in three once upon a time) is still in print. This I have, but I  
>am presently involved in a most desperate search for the other volumes. If  
>anyone could be of any help in my search, I would owe much to him (or  
>her).
>
>Please reply through e-mail if you can offer any assistance whatsoever.
>
>- gaurav
>gsinghma@reed.edu
>
>"Let the meek inherit the earth -- they have it coming to them."
>	-- James Thurber
From: maverick@mahogany.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Vance Maverick)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Books in the time of Love
Date: 1 Oct 1992 16:27:30 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: mahogany.cs.berkeley.edu

In article <1adfl3INNlpc@agate.berkeley.edu>, maverick@CS.Berkeley.EDU (I) write:
|> 
|> One entanglement,
|> though, crossed the cusp with the gift of a book: _The Tale of
|> Tom Kitten_, if memory serves.

In the interest of veracity: this is false.  Potter was
significant, but the real cusp was an evening at the theater --
Beckett.  (I know there must be some common literary thread
there, but I haven't found it yet.)

	Vance
From: jeremy@castle.ed.ac.uk (JHenderson)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: WWII Novels?
Date: 28 Sep 92 13:34:27 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University

In article <1992Sep25.225801.5953@eua.ericsson.se> euargb@eua.ericsson.se writes:

=>My personal favourite in the war genre (action) is Linna's "Unknown soldier", 
=>but I understand it doesn't translate well (lots of dialect used)...

Somewhat similar to Unknown Soldier is Paul Watkins's "Day over night over day"
(or do I mean "Night over day over night??) which is the story of a rather
unwilling recruit into the German Army and his subsequent....well, I'll let
you find out.

I also strongly recommend Watkins' other books.

-- 
=======Jeremy Henderson========jeremy@castle.ed.ac.uk===============
From: proberts@informix.com (Paul Roberts)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: SUBSCRIBE, PLEASE
Date: 3 Oct 92 02:02:07 GMT
Organization: Informix Software, Inc.

In article <80952@ut-emx.uucp> jzimm@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Joann Zimmerman) writes:
>In article <563@arrl.org> jkearman@arrl.org (Jim Kearman) writes:
>>SUBSCRIBE
>
>This is remarkably open-ended, seeming to lack both punctuation and
>direction. I am uncertain how it should be parsed; as an imperative,
>as a plea? "Subscribe!" or "Only subscribe"? To what? By whom? Can
>this be a concealed advertisement from the Magazine Publishers
>Association? 
>
>

Perhaps it is like those other one-word injunctions one sees:

 "VOTE!"

and IBM's "THINK".

And while we are at it, what does "Only connect" mean? I think it is
some kind of catchphrase, but it doesn't make much sense to me. Anyone?
From: nickles@sage.cc.purdue.edu (john a nickles)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: A pox upon your book (was Re: Dashiell Hammett)
Date: 5 Oct 92 18:38:54 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center

In article <1992Oct4.155335.4872@eff.org> mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin) writes:

>
>As Woody Allen says in "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex":
>
>"TB or not TB--that is the congestion.
>
>"Consumption be done about it?"
>
>
>
>--Mike


Of cough it can ! 

John A. Nickles
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: ssc@nwu.edu (Steven Chung)
Subject: Re: Faust
Originator: schung@casbah.acns.nwu.edu
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 00:35:38 GMT

In article <1992Sep25.000222.10633@nevada.edu> wwhitman@nevada.edu (MICHAEL WISE) writes:
#                                                         Not for the faint
# of heart, but a nice translation in verse was done by Philip Wayne in the
# Penguin Edition of Goethe's Faust (in two volumes.

This one jingles too much for my taste; try Kaufmann's translation.
Abridged, but superior wrt the bits done (all of Part I and the beginning
and end of Part II).  Reissued as an Anchor paperback.
From: cruz@lab.ultra.nyu.edu (Nancy Cruz)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: She's baaaaack.....Camille Paglia
Date: 6 Oct 92 18:57:12 GMT
Organization: New York University Ultracomputer Research Lab

In article <1992Oct4.160915.5119@eff.org> mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin) writes:
>
>I suppose it doesn't help anything, Mark, if I tell you that I too am a
>dyed-in-the-wool Madonna fan?
>[stuff deleted]

>--Mike
>

I think the point is "who cares?"  It doesn't exactly make for a
profound read...

Nancy
>
>
>
>-- 
>Mike Godwin,    |"Liberty resides in the rights of that person
>mnemonic@eff.org| whose views you find most odious."
>(617) 864-0665  | 
>EFF, Cambridge  |                           --John Stuart Mill


-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nancy Cruz - a.k.a. "Tensha, the Icewoman" |   New York University    |
|      cruz@lab.ultra.nyu.edu                |Ultracomputer Research lab|
+--------------------------------------------+--------------------------+
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: baker@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Andrew Baker)
Subject: Re: She's baaaaack.....Camille Paglia
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 20:02:48 GMT

In article <jyc.717613880@Leland> jyc@leo.Stanford.EDU (Jon Corelis) writes:
>
>   (It is with some interest that I have noted in the course of this
>discussion that conservatives' much-vaunted immunity to trendy humbug
>seems to evaporate when the humbug is on their side of the fence.) 

Nonsense.  I haven't seen hordes of conservatives jumping in line behind
Paglia.  Can you give the names of all the well-known conservative
publications or pundits who have endorsed her ideas?

I don't know much about Paglia, but from what I do know, she doesn't seem
to be much of a conservative.  And the discussion of her here (including
that moronic quote from that SF newspaper) certainly hasn't given me a
desire to learn anything more about her.  So my immunity is intact! . . .
I think I will go read a book by Gertrude Himmelfarb instead; I hope that is
sufficiently untrendy.

Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Date: Fri,  2 Oct 1992 20:49:41 -0400 
From: "Jonathan R. Ferro" <jf41+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Kafka's "Metamorphasis"
	<BvICzq.39x@news.cso.uiuc.edu>

I had a thrilling rereading of the Metamorphosis just after thinking,
"Now, wait.  Gregor is actually a _constant_ in the story after it
starts.  What if there is some other metamorphosis that I've been
missing by trying to get inside the mind of a dumb bug?"  Reaching the
last paragraph with this in mind was a real revelation.

I don't recall if this was the first time that I really understood what
people meant by "stories working on several levels", but I do recall
that shortly thereafter I discovered all the WWII references in _The
Once and Future King_ and now there's no stopping me.  :)

-- Jon Ferro               Einsprachigkeit ist heilbar
From: miner@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: The Anatomy of Bibliomania
Date: 2 Oct 92 17:26:46 CDT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

One of the oddest books I have come across is Holbrook Jackson's _The
Anatomy of Bibliomania_, published in 1950 by Farrar, Strauss, NY.
There's an AMS reprint, which is what I have.

The entire book is written in a sort of pastiche (but not satirical)
of Robert Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_.  The effect is
interesting, although I'm not sure I want to wade through the whole
thing.  It reminds me a little of the archaizing you find in Robert
Bridges, this is much more extreme.

I wonder how much of this sort of thing is around: people deliberately
writing (not translating) in a past English prose style.  I also
wonder what if anything literary theorists would have to say about
the practice.

********************************** +.............................+
*- Ken <miner@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>* :All opinions expressed herein:
*There is no privileged position.* :are my own and are not to be :
*	-God, Derrida, others    * : attributed to my employer   :
********************************** +.............................+
From: fehr@ms.uky.edu (Jeff Davis)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Exit Shakespeare....
Date: 2 Oct 92 15:29:46 GMT
Organization: Austerlitz, Gershovitz, and Carmichael

Kate Sanders writes:
>
>If by Shakespeare's Shakespeare, you mean a useful source of material,
>both Plutarch and Holinshed were "Shakespeares." But if you mean a
>dominating figure in the field, whose work is both challenging and
>intimidating to newcomers, surely the answer has to be Homer or
>Virgil, or maybe "the classics" as an amorphous mass. Interesting that
>they've totally lost that position now (at least in this country). Are
>there any current writers who are at all influenced by Greek and Latin
>authors? 
>
Guy Davenport.

-- 
Jeff Davis <davis@keats.ca.uky.edu>
From: peace@camelot.bradley.edu (Laura Wasko)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Books in the time of love
Date: 3 Oct 92 22:32:04 GMT
Article-I.D.: camelot.peace.718151524
Organization: Bradley University

In <91407@netnews.upenn.edu> crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford) writes:

>Here's a related topic:

>My sweetie (nice term, that) and I are reading through "The Chronicles of
>Narnia" together.  What books have you all read with your sweet patooty? 
>What books read well with another person?  What effect, if any, did doing
>this have on the relationship?  

My sweetie and I like to read children's books (or those books that are so
called--I personally don't believe in the distinction) to unwind.  So far,
in about a year, we've gone through Barbara Robinson's _The Best Christmas
Pageant Ever_, Roald Dahl's _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_, Norton
Juster's _The Phantom Tollbooth_ and Lewis Carroll's _Alice_ and _Through
the Looking Glass_.  We're now working on _The Princess Bride_.  I like the
continued belief in magic and childhood implied by these works.

Laura


  "That day she was amazed to discover that when he was saying 'As you wish,'
   what he really meant was 'I love you.'  And even more amazing was the day
  she realized she truly loved him back."  --W. Goldman, *The Princess Bride*
                    Laura W.     peace@camelot.bradley.edu
From: kate@cactus.org (Katherine M. Catmull)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Books in the time of school
Date: 6 Oct 92 18:37:16 GMT
Article-I.D.: cactus.1992Oct6.183716.11937
Organization: Capital Area Central Texas UNIX Society, Austin, Tx


This has been a fascinating thread that I accidentally started,
I must say. I really want to _meet_ some of you people now.

I feel that to complete the circle I must fess up and say
that the book that got me through high school (and bits
of college, and occasional tenuous moments e'en now) is
Franny and Zooey, by the infamous JDS.

Scoff away,

Kate


-- 
- - - - - - - -
kate@cactus.org
Be the voice of night and Florida in my ear.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: orourke@sophia.smith.edu (Joseph O'Rourke)
Subject: Re: "Genius": Feynman bio
Organization: Smith College, Northampton, MA, US
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 16:51:40 GMT

For those interested, James Gleick's "Genius: The Life and Science of
Richard Feynman," has reached bookstores. $34.50. 531 pages.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mattb@ctron.com (Matt Brown)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: lit quiz
Keywords: duo character style
Date: 5 Oct 92 16:12:39 GMT
Reply-To: mattb@olympus.ctron.com (Matt Brown)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Cabletron Systems INc.

(Robert E Beville) writes:
>	Why is the name of the literary? plot? style, in western
>	literature of the Holmes-Watson type of story.  Where the
>	main guy has a side-kick who asks those questions that lead
>	to  the furtherment of the plot or exposition.
>	What was the first piece of western lit to introduce this
>	form?  What were the names of the duo? 

I would say the first novel with such a pair was Don Quixote,
with the Don/Sancho Panza duo.

Henry/Falstaff form a pair in the Shakespeare histories, although it is more
of a point/counterpoint or hero/foil relationship. I'm sure there are earlier
examples in other genres, though I can't come up with any off hand from the
Greeks, Romans, or Vikings.

Maybe Dante`s use of Virgil would qualify?.

>	What book/author is credited as the first mystery novel?
>	( of the 'detective' solves a crime -type )

Poe is usually credited with writing the first real detective stories, or
tales of ratiocination, in his words (reasoning out the answer). But these
were mostly short stories. Unless there was somebody in between, I'd say
Conan-Doyle was next, but that's just a guess.

Matt
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: Enforced Shakespeare?
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 17:33:56 GMT

In article <Bvp6qp.2zs@fulcrum.bt.co.uk> igb@fulcrum.bt.co.uk (Ian G Batten) writes:

>Which is why quite a lot of Shakespeare was left unperformed for 300
>years, of course.

Could you name some plays that were left unperformed for *300* years?


--Mike



-- 
Mike Godwin,    |"Liberty resides in the rights of that person
mnemonic@eff.org| whose views you find most odious."
(617) 864-0665  | 
EFF, Cambridge  |                           --John Stuart Mill
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: le01167@portal.lasc.lockheed.com (Ron Nadel)
Subject: Re: Fictitious Fiction
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. - Rye Canyon
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 92 23:32:57 GMT

Has someone already mentioned the prolific writer and his clever stories and
their titles in Kurt Vonnegut's novels named Kilgore Trout?

Ron
From: maverick@mahogany.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Vance Maverick)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Native American Indian novels
Date: 5 Oct 1992 21:48:13 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: mahogany.cs.berkeley.edu

	Check out Scott Momaday's _House Made of Dawn_ -- still in
print in paperback, I believe.  We were assigned this in an
anthropology class in college; at that time, it didn't do much for
me qua novel, but I think it will bring you a stronger sense of
culture than most I've seen.  

	Vance
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: gold bug variations
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Distribution: rec
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 03:35:02 GMT

In article <1992Sep27.1479.19615@channel1> "eliot gelwan" <eliot.gelwan@channel1.com> writes:
>Has anyone read Powers' _The Gold Bug Variations_? What did you
>think of it? It was just raved about in the recent Whole Earth
>Review.

The book is entirely worth reading.


--Mike



-- 
Mike Godwin,    |"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact 
mnemonic@eff.org| of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, 
(617) 864-0665  | both are transformed."
EFF, Cambridge  |                           --Carl Jung
From: crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Transsexualism (was: A Room of One's Own with a View to Kill)
Date: 29 Sep 92 20:20:43 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <bkt.717797127@blacks> bkt@blacks.jpl.nasa.gov (Barrie Trinkle) writes:
>
>A throwaway reference to Jan (formerly James) Morris, whose
>autobiography of the "he-->she" period of her life is titled
>_Conundrum_.  Wonderful book.

I found reading that book much like watching a car crash.  Horrible, but
you can't look away.



-- 
Lauren Crawford  //  crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu

Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:17013 sci.classics:758
From: rsdean@apgea.army.mil (Robert S. Dean <rsdean>)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,sci.classics
Subject: Re: sticker prices for books in Plato's day
Date: 28 Sep 92 14:49:18 GMT
Organization: ATE1 S7=255 S11=55 V1 X1 S0=0

ncramer@labs-n.bbn.com (Nichael Cramer) writes:
ck@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) writes:
>To give some specific numbers, in 301 CE Diocletian issued an edict fixing
>the wage rate of a scribe at 25 denarii for 100 lines of "writing of first
>quality" and 20 denarii for the same length of "second quality" (the
>criteria for the difference in quality is not specified in my source).
>
>As a basis of comparison, in the previous century it is known that under
>Caracalla (211-17) that a legionary was paid a annual stipendum of 750
>denarii (in addition to the cost of his maintenance).
>
>So, to have 100 lines copied would have cost Joe Legion about 2 weeks
>salary, while a complete Bible would have cost the approximate equivalent
>of 40 yrs salary.
>
>(On the other hand recall that in the middle of the 4th cent Constantine
>had 50 of these things produced for the new churches that he was having
>built at Constantinople.)>
>
>NICHAEL                           "A big book is a big nuissance."
>nichael@bbn.com  --           [Mega Biblion Mega Kakon] -- Callimachus

You're on the right track, but unfortunately a cost comparison from the reign
of Caracall to the reign of Diocletian is a bit shaky.  From the late 100's on
through Diocletians reform of the coinage (290s? It's been a while, but before
the price edict) Rome was suffering from a long period of regular debasement of
the coinage.  I haven't got my reference materials to hand, but I'd be reluct-
ant to use any comparison of prices in which values were not expressed in gold,
since the size and gold content of the aureus remained stable across this 
period.

As to Constantine commissioning 50 Bibles--well, it is good to be the Emperor
(-:.  Even at three or four scribes a piece, the staff requirement would have 
been a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of maintaining the many thous-
ands of members of the Imperial bureaucracy, not to mention the 300,000 or so
regular soldiers.

Anyone interested in the gory details on the period would do well to have a 
look at A.H.M. Jones' _The Later Roman Empire, 284-602: A Social, Administra-
tive and Economic Survey_ (in print, from Johns Hopkins University Press in
the U.S.--not sure about the U.K. and elsewhere.)

Rob Dean
From: crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Who reads Rushdie?
Date: 1 Oct 92 14:27:49 GMT
Distribution: world,local
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <2551@ceylon.gte.com> vks0@bunny.gte.com (Vijay Samalam) writes:
>
>I read Rushdie and so do many other people and I 
>definitely think he is a brilliant writer.
>
>I noticed that you did not mention the one book
>that I still think is his best, "Midnight's Children".


I agree on both counts.  I'm a big Rushdie fan, mostly on the strength of
"Midnight's Children."  I didn't enjoy "Satanic Verses" nearly as much;
I'm hoping to start "Shame" soon.  I read "Midnight's Children" in Nepal,
just before heading into India, and found it extremely powerful, one of
those books that changes the way you think about fundamental things.  But
then, Nepal has that effect, too.  I should probably read the book again
here in Philadelphia and see how it strikes me now.



-- 
Lauren Crawford  //  crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu