--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 159 WRITING Ref: F2A00016 Date: 02/05/98 From: JACK RUTTAN Time: 10:05pm \/To: CURTIS JOHNSON (Read 2 times) Subj: Books CJ> To make it somewhat on-topic (and thereby avoid the > hassle of netmail) , if my guess is right and the name of the > initial can be related to time-keeping, his importance was less > as a writer than as the publisher who established a market for > science fiction *books* (as opposed to magazine sf). No! Avram Davidson, not August Derleth! (People will be pissed off reading this, and not knowing what's going on. Is Davidson Golden Age enough? I've heard that everyone's Golden Age is fifteen years old.) And now I must know the relationship to time-keeping! Jack R. --- Maximus/2 3.01 * Origin: Juxtaposition BBS. Lasalle, Quebec, Canada (1:167/133) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 159 WRITING Ref: F2B00000 Date: 02/04/98 From: DAVID CHESSLER Time: 07:07pm \/To: RICH VERAA (Read 2 times) Subj: The History of Comput On 2 Feb 98, 09:36pm, Rich Veraa wrote to Russ Wuertz on the subject of "Re: The History of Comput": > In a message to All, Russ Wuertz wrote: RW>> The History of Computers: Russ Wuertz appears from time to time in FCC and some other echos. Others claim this occurs when he goes "off his medications." I can't speak to that, but I do recall the time quite some years ago when he reported going to the FCC for help because someone or other was using radio waves to "steal his thoughts." FCC is inhabited by radio amateurs and professionals, and some of them gave him much cogent advice about lining his baseball hat with aluminum foil. Thus, your response here is exactly right for the audience. > On the seventh day, an engineering change introduced Windows into > the Universe, and it hasn't worked right since. And nothing on my computer has worked right since I installed windows95, too. -- ___ __ chessler@mix.cpcug.org d_)--/d chessler@capaccess.org ... E-mail: 1:109/1111 david.chessler@mix.cpcug.org * Evaluation copy of Silver Xpress. Day # 42488 * Silver Xpress V4.4P --- Synchronet+SBBSecho v1.23 * Origin: << Crystal Aerie >> (703) 903-9241 (1:109/1111) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 159 WRITING Ref: F2B00001 Date: 02/06/98 From: CLAW Time: 09:20am \/To: DON JAMES (Read 2 times) Subj: Now, there you are... On 02-03-98 Don James wrote to Jack Ruttan... DJ> delete a typo or two I still left a "d" on what should have been an DJ> "an". Nobody said life was easy did they? Hello, I sent you a message....it went into the "Funny" echo; it was written under my real name, Thomas J. Brown.....and what was it we were goin' on about, again? Anyway, the message was done in my name but was sent after loggin' on under "CLAW"....the upload was still "Thomas..." and had confused the board. Sorry. No, it wasn't your fault; you didn't send your message into other echos, it was just me screwin' up!!! \\\CLAW\\\...such is life. ___ * OFFLINE 1.58 --- Maximus 3.00 * Origin: MURPHY'S LAW BBS (1:163/113) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 159 WRITING Ref: F2B00002 Date: 02/07/98 From: ELVIS HARGROVE Time: 12:19am \/To: JACK RUTTAN (Read 2 times) Subj: Slang Vs: Pop. Misusage -> and onomatopoeia (ha! I spelled that right, first time!). ..... and onomatopoeia, what? Tell me a little about the biker wars.......? Hogs versus Riceburners? ^..^ --- FidoPCB v1.5 beta-'j' * Origin: BOO! Board Of Occult, Rio Grande Valley Texas (1:397/6) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 159 WRITING Ref: F2B00003 Date: 02/07/98 From: ELVIS HARGROVE Time: 12:24am \/To: JACK RUTTAN (Read 2 times) Subj: Collaborator 3 -> does. Maybe I'll report on it. Don't know what I will say, but it's -> the sort of thing I'd like to read about in a place like this. Certainly oughta be on topic...... That IS an interesting concept. I sort of enjoyed writing with a partner to bounce ideas off. Unfortunately she and I had vastly divergent ideas as to what constituted "Realistic Adventure." (Ala Romancing the Stone.) A mechanical collaborator wouldn't be all bad........ ^..^ --- FidoPCB v1.5 beta-'j' * Origin: BOO! Board Of Occult, Rio Grande Valley Texas (1:397/6) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 159 WRITING Ref: F2B00004 Date: 02/07/98 From: ELVIS HARGROVE Time: 12:29am \/To: DAVID CHESSLER (Read 2 times) Subj: The History of Comput -> Russ Wuertz appears from time to time in FCC and some other I absolutely love Russ's exploits into subjective reality! "Off his meds" or not, Russ is seldom boring! Rich apparently feels the same..... -> Thus, your response here is exactly right for the audience. Absolutely! Well said! ^..^ --- FidoPCB v1.5 beta-'j' * Origin: BOO! Board Of Occult, Rio Grande Valley Texas (1:397/6) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 159 WRITING Ref: F2B00005 Date: 02/02/98 From: MICHAEL NELLIS Time: 08:29am \/To: CURTIS JOHNSON (Read 2 times) Subj: Books Hi, Curtis. CJ> Sorry about the delay in replying. Well, okay. :-) CJ> MN> _Grumbles From The Grave_ and find out the hard way what he CJ> MN> had to go through from some of his editors. CJ> Whatever their errors, the editors would have objected to the CJ> rambling, bloated work of his later years, no? Ah, but they didn't get his rambling, bloated works, did they? :-) RAH didn't object to cutting or revising a work to make it more effective, and he was aware that he had an nasty tendency to preach. CJ> Had an editor dared argue with him in his CJ> later career, we may well have been spared _The Number of the Beast_. They didn't argue over TNOTB at all, though. They asked him to cut only 2,000 words out of an estimated 200,000. Besides, since SIASL, Robert was deliberately making these departures from the norm as an exercise in exploring the art of writing. One of the reasons that he wrote SIASL in fact was that he had gotten famous enough to write what he wanted and still have an expectation that the work would be given serious consideration instead of summarily dismissed. CJ> MN> No, Heinlein seems to have had an inordinate amount of talent; CJ> MN> else he simply took the genre into the realm of the avant CJ> MN> garde without making it overly obvious to the reader. CJ> Heinlein avant-garde? ROTFL! I have never written a World-Saver story of the usual formula, because I don't believe in them. -Robert Anson Heinlein to John W Campbell, in a letter dated 16 September 1941 and reprinted in Grumbles From The Grave, pg 17 So far as I know, every such story has alien intelligence which treat humans as approximate equals, either as friends or as foes. It is assumed that A-I will either be friends, anxious to communicate and trade, or enemies who will fight and kill, or possibly enslave, the human race. There is another and much more humiliating possibility--alien intelligences so superior to us and so indifferent to us as to be almost unaware of us. -Robert Anson Heinlein to John W Campbell, in a letter dated 16 September 1941 and reprinted in Grumbles From The Grave, pg 18 That second quote is about his story _Goldfish Bowl._ However, I will concede that avant-garde is less appropriate than venturesome in most cases. :-) CJ> I can easily name half-a-dozen contemporary sf writers who were CJ> much more avant-garde than he. Contemporary, but how about during the Golden Age of Science Fiction? (Or do you mean to include those writers under the label?) Robert started his rep with short stories that were a departure from the norm when most were still cranking out pulp fiction (using the label as a tag for a sub-genre, rather than to mean a medium). Look at _All You Zombies,_ which is a good example of the avant-garde. So too, I would say, was _The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathon Hoag._ Heinlein didn't all of sudden just get weird. His later works were a result of being well enough recognised to be able to indulge his weirdness. CJ> MN> Astounding, although Campbell did have some bones to pick with some f CJ> MN> the issues Heinlein presented in his stories. He did not, however, CJ> MN> seem to find fault with the writing itself. CJ> Short stories impose their own discipline on length. CJ> You can be sure that Campbell would never have serialized CJ> the later novels (except, possibly, "Friday"). Of course not, but those later novels weren't written with serialization in mind. * SLMR 2.1a * It takes just as long to write a bad novel as a good one. --- Maximus/2 3.01 * Origin: Juxtaposition BBS. Lasalle, Quebec, Canada (1:167/133) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 159 WRITING Ref: F2B00006 Date: 02/02/98 From: MICHAEL NELLIS Time: 08:45am \/To: JACK RUTTAN (Read 2 times) Subj: Books Hi, Jack. JR> MN>Another reason might be that we, we being the authors, might be anting JR> >to get to know the characters better and to explore more of their ives JR> >than can be explored in one book. JR> If you have totally compelling characters, this might be true. I got JR> pretty weary of Luke Skywalker and Co. after the first film. I don't think there was very much character development in the second and third films, even though Luke's struggle against his own nature was central to the story. Perhaps it was due to the shortcomings of the medium. JR> Sorry not JR> to relate to literature, because a lot of it I haven't read, but Tolkien JR> set up quite a few threads, each of which might have been a novel on its JR> own, but one story may not have supported the entire trilogy. Well, considering that the group split up to accomplish certain different goals to accomplish their main purpose. . . . JR> These are _novels_ we're talking about! David Copperfield got finished JR> in one. At least he lived happily ever after, and the major plot points JR> got resolved. But that was one _thick_ novel. Something to consider might be how thick a slice of life does each contain. It could be simply that the span of time over which all the action and growth takes place is not compressed as it is in contemporary novels. Compare afternoon soap operas to prime-time soaps, for instance. * SLMR 2.1a * _ _ _ _ _ / / / / | | | | | | | | | What Domino Effect? --- Maximus/2 3.01 * Origin: Juxtaposition BBS. Lasalle, Quebec, Canada (1:167/133) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 159 WRITING Ref: F2B00007 Date: 02/02/98 From: MICHAEL NELLIS Time: 08:54am \/To: VERN FAULKNER (Read 2 times) Subj: In Space - Need Map! Hi, Vern. VF> Now, you're asking yourself - why is the topic-conscious VF> Vern replying to such a message as this, a discussion about VF> star-map/moon-phase tracking programs? No, but I am beginning to be somewhat irritated over his habit of complaining about topicality and then posting so many off-topic messages with an apology for being off-topic and all in the same breath. >:-) VF> and this time writing in a fantasy world of my own VF> creation, for which I was designing an FRPG gaming system VF> with intent to publish. Then it is clearly on topic, in my never, ever humble opinion, and apologia is unnecessary. * SLMR 2.1a * My mind's like a steel trap: rusty & illegal in 19 states --- Maximus/2 3.01 * Origin: Juxtaposition BBS. Lasalle, Quebec, Canada (1:167/133) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 159 WRITING Ref: F2B00008 Date: 02/02/98 From: MICHAEL NELLIS Time: 09:02am \/To: JACK RUTTAN (Read 2 times) Subj: Rights or wrongs? Hi, Jack. JR> Hey guys, (not meaning to tromp on you again, Michael, but this is where JR> I've decided to jump in. It's really more directed at the other party, JR> who should know about this by now). Is this thread about Clinton really JR> on topic? Hmmmm. Well, . . . the thread isn't entirely about Clinton, really. I thought it was focusing more on the state of journalism in modern society. My most recent posting, under the SUBJ: heading Moral Corruption, is meant to focus on the public perceptions of the scandal. I belive that I have properly qualified it so that it should not be mistaken for apologia. (Geez, that makes twice I've used that word in one packet. What are the odds?) :-) Anyway, I figured that posting would be the last I'd mention about Zippergate. At least for this time around. ;-) * SLMR 2.1a * ...with all the imagination of a lobotomized flatworm. --- Maximus/2 3.01 * Origin: Juxtaposition BBS. Lasalle, Quebec, Canada (1:167/133)