From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V10 #218 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Tuesday, May 29 2001 Volume 10 : Number 218 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: hello? [steve ] RE: hello? ["Brian Huddell" ] Re: hello? [JH3 ] Re: Feels like August 23rd ["Russ Reynolds" ] Re: worst book EVER! ["Andrew D. Simchik" ] Pearl Harbor [Mike Swedene ] Aloha! [Tom Clark ] Re: worst book EVER! ["victorian squid" ] Re: what's the worst book you ever read? ["Stewart C. Russell" ] Re: one of the best books EVER! [GSS ] august was grey ["ross taylor" ] Feg Chine ["3 Rose Cottage" ] Re: hello? [Stephen Mahoney ] Re: worst book EVER! [Stephen Mahoney ] Re: Feg Chine ["matt sewell" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 22:56:55 -0500 From: steve Subject: Re: hello? On Monday, May 28, 2001, at 10:34 PM, James Dignan wrote: > has everyone stopped talking, or have I somehow gotten disconnected? No > digests for about 36 hours is rare these days on Fegmaniax... Sorry, James - everybody except me is out seeing PEARL HARBOR. - - Steve __________ It's widely expected that when Congress renews the 1996 welfare law next year, social conservatives will press to earmark millions of dollars for marriage education, require states to end some income tests that discourage parents from getting married, and reward single mothers with cash bonuses if they marry the child's father. - Mary Leonard, Boston Globe ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 23:01:05 -0500 From: "Brian Huddell" Subject: RE: hello? James: > I don't like it... it's too quiet. It's almost as if... aaaauuuggh! > > has everyone stopped talking, or have I somehow gotten disconnected? No > digests for about 36 hours is rare these days on Fegmaniax... Could it be because *someone* left the "dum dee dum dum, dum dee dum dum" part out of "Heavenly Pop Hit"? I know that left me at a loss for words. ;-) Could be the holiday here in the US, three day weekend, always quieter when people are away from work. +brian ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 23:30:30 -0500 From: JH3 Subject: Re: hello? >> has everyone stopped talking, or have I somehow gotten disconnected? No >> digests for about 36 hours is rare these days on Fegmaniax... >Sorry, James - everybody except me is out seeing PEARL HARBOR. Yeah, what WAS the deal with that movie? I go there expecting a nice little movie about oyster divers, and instead it's this whopping big WAR movie with zillions of dollars worth of special effects and some mega- stooopid love triangle subplot! There isn't a SINGLE shellfish of any kind featured anywhere in the film! After 2-1/2 hours of machine gun fire and fighter planes whizzing by I went to the ticket guy and demanded my money back, but he said they only do refunds within the first hour! What a gyp! (Is that how you spell that, btw?) I was thinking of going to see that new John Travolta flick "Swordfish" next week, but I'll just bet that's ANOTHER deceptive title - there's probably no seafood content in that movie, either! JH3 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 21:43:30 -0700 From: "Russ Reynolds" Subject: Re: Feels like August 23rd > I guess the official story is that August 23rd is Robyn & Michelle's > "anniversary", but I'm liking the mistique this adds to the date. ^^^^^^^ Believe it or not, I stared at that word for a good five minutes before sending, trying to figure out why it looked so funny and I finally gave up and decided it only looked funny because I was tired. Big mystaque. - -rUss. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 22:18:46 -0700 From: "Andrew D. Simchik" Subject: Re: worst book EVER! on 5/27/01 7:35 PM, victorian squid at v.squid@eudoramail.com wrote: > I can't comment on "American Psycho", because I haven't read it. I can comment > on "Less Than Zero". I don't know why you would need to. Plenty of critics are available to expound on what a shitty writer Ellis is, how horrible his books are, how shallow and empty his writing style, and so on. I'm sure they, and you, are right. I encountered LESS THAN ZERO and moments later, even more significantly, THE RULES OF ATTRACTION, when I was in high school, if I recall correctly. What struck me was that both books described a world of rich amoral heroin and coke addicts, a world so utterly alien to me that it might as well have been science fiction, a world with a mythical landscape of palm trees and sunlight, and -- the detail without which it would all have been a mere curiosity -- a world where people were casually and without fanfare bisexual. If I'd ever encountered that before, it hadn't impressed itself on me the way this did. It didn't really matter whether the writing was any good or whether the characters were appealing or three-dimensional or whatever. The attitude was what I focused on. Of course, nostalgia alone doesn't explain why I find Ellis's writing readable even today, alternately chilling, ridiculous, and hilarious, or why I liked his latest absurdist horror novel, GLAMORAMA. I guess I just have horrible taste (see also Duran Duran and Culture Club). Or maybe I just read Jay McInerney and you didn't. I'm pretty sure I read BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY and it made absolutely no impression on me. Not enough drugs and sex and pretension, I guess. I've never been able to finish an "Elric" novel, either. Or one of Pat Cadigan's cyberpunk novels. I suppose they don't count either because they're "genre." Whatever. - -- Andrew D. Simchik, drew at stormgreen dot com http://www.stormgreen.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 22:22:26 -0700 (PDT) From: Mike Swedene Subject: Pearl Harbor I didn't go see it this weekend. I heard it is like that other movie about a sinking ship... in the end the ship sinks, people die, "beautiful" (?) people fall in "love/lust," and some "pop diva" sings a terrible song in it for the "theme" song. I never knew they wrote a song called "Schmuckola." 2) Saw Shrek last week, noticed our buddy Rufus is on the soundtrack and his song appears in the movie too, very rare for a song to appear in BOTH places these days. Usually the soundtrack has songs "inspired" by the movie. 3) How is New Zealand doing? I saw that a big truck with rat poison careened off a cliff and lost its load of poison into the water near a habitat or a favorite feeding ground of whales and dolphins. Anything to report? (God bless FOX news) That's all.... Herbie ps - missed the go-gos today, but caught Mighty Mighty bosstones on thursday, cathcing U2 (with PJ Harvey) on thursday and Oasis on Sunday :) Happy boy! Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 22:26:37 -0700 From: Tom Clark Subject: Aloha! Just got back from a week in Kauai and I wanted to say "mahalo" for all the Blur suggestions sent while I was gone. carry on, - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 00:26:55 -0700 From: "victorian squid" Subject: Re: worst book EVER! On Mon, 28 May 2001 22:18:46 Andrew D. Simchik wrote: (snip) You know, "Worst Book Ever" wasn't meant to be taken dead seriously. >Pat Cadigan's cyberpunk novels. I suppose they don't count either >because they're "genre." That'd be scathing if I'd actually meant what you thought I meant. Perhaps "serious" was too loaded a word to use in that context. What I was trying to convey was that I differentiate between people who are trying to make art, and people who are there mostly for money (most romance novelists, authors of diet books, people like that), celebrities who think it would be fun to write a book, etc. and so forth. Genre is irrelevant as far as that goes, for the most part it's the writers' intentions that determine it. loveonya, susan Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 09:09:08 +0100 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: what's the worst book you ever read? Capuchin wrote: > > On Fri, 25 May 2001, Carole Reichstein wrote: > > As an employee of Powell's Technical Books, I can certainly vouch for > > Jeme's love of O'Reilly computer book titles. He used to be able to > > recite a title just by someone saying "Owl!" or "Camel!" (O'Reilly > > puts animals on the cover of its books, you see). Jeme says he's out > > of practice now. > > Mastering Regular Expressions. > Programming Perl. > > I can still do it... but only with the un*x titles. > > I couldn't, for example, tell you whats on any of the Oracle or Win32 > books. > > Is it just me, or is it about time that O'Reilly put out a TeX book? Yes. The spider book is old. Trouble is, TeX is getting just too unwieldy to document, and the whole developer community either knows it really well (witness the XML parser written in TeX) or gets by by installing packages for LaTeX -- there's no middle ground. Stewart - -- Stewart C. Russell Senior Analyst Programmer stewart@ref.collins.co.uk Collins Dictionaries use Disclaimer; my $opinion; Bishopbriggs, Scotland ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 12:29:43 -0400 From: Brad Hutchinson Subject: Young Adult Fantasy (and some science fiction) - -- Brad, husband of the other Jill here. I'm a former middle school teacher and watched many fantasy books go by my desk in the ten years I taught middle school English. Here are some: Susan Cooper--The Dark is Rising series (start with _The Dark is Rising_) --her other book of fantasy about death (can't pull up the name right now) --avoid her Boggart novels since they're a bit young for a 12 yr old. Ursala LeGuin's Earthsea Triology (specifically a ya novel sequence) Charles DeLint The Dreaming Place (and many others are pretty suited to a ya audience.) Peter Beagle _The Last Unicorn_ Jane Yolen _Dragon's Blood_ and those that follow Anne McCaffrey's Dragonsong etcetera Ray Bradbury The Martian Chronicles, Something wicked this way comes, The Halloween Tree, Diane Wynn Jones' books are all fun William Sleator's books are fun too (science fiction) Lloyd Alexander's The Prydain Chronicles Robert Zelazny's Amber Chronicles Lois Duncan's books were popular Alan Garner's books Virginia Hamilton's Dust trilogy Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books Merideth Anne Pierce's Darkangel trilogy was popular and strange (to me) The Xanth books by Piers Anthony were popular but his series about gods _On A Pale Horse_ etcetera were much better (though a bit old for a 12 yr old) Figgs and Phantoms by the author of The Westing Game--my ya fiction brain is slowing down. That should be enough to get you started. Hope this was a help. brad, who took 10 years to graduate from middle school and is now teaching high school - -- Dis aliter visum - --Virgil (It seemed otherwise to the gods.) - -------------------------------------------------------------- Brad Hutchinson--brad@lightfallsdesign.com--bhutchinson@bristolvaschools.org ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 10:42:47 -0400 From: "brian nupp" Subject: Re: Feels like August 23rd August 23rd 1970: Lou Reed plays his last gig with the Velvet Underground at Max's Kansas City. (well besides the reunion gigs) Nuppy >From: "Russ Reynolds" > >A long time ago on a mailing list very far away, someone wrote: > > >> Does anyone know the significance of Robyn calling his publishing = > >> company August 23rd Music? > > > > John Lennon and Cynthia Powell wed (1962) > > "She Loves You" is released by The Beatles (1963) > > "Help", the Beatles second film, is released (1965) > >I was just examining my "Walls & Bridges" booklet and I discovered yet >another Lennon connection: "On the 23rd Aug. 1974 at 9 O'clock I Saw A >U.F.O. - J.L." > >1974, no less. > >I guess the official story is that August 23rd is Robyn & Michelle's >"anniversary", but I'm liking the mistique this adds to the date. > >-rUss > >np: Old Dirt Road _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 10:39:49 -0500 (CDT) From: GSS Subject: Re: one of the best books EVER! On Mon, 28 May 2001, Capuchin wrote: > On Sun, 27 May 2001, Ken Weingold wrote: > > One book that I would comment on is Geek Love. I really liked it, but > > the end really pissed me off; a real cop-out. Can anyone else comment > > on this? Do not say anything about the end, I am half-way through. > I'll remind you up front that I've claimed Geek Love to be the greatest > book I've ever read... probably even reclaimed that recently. > Oh, and GSS, you done with my well-travelled paperback copy of Geek Love, > yet? Thanks. Almost finished Jeme, I will send it back soon. Thanks for the reading, great book. gss ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 11:59:46 -0400 From: "ross taylor" Subject: august was grey The danger of threads like these is that they cause me to buy more books & my "to be read" stacks get higher, i.e. "sinister doings among rival bands of elevator operators" sounds like fun. I very much agree with: Salmon Rushdie Octavia Butler Clark Coolidge Roger Zelazny Matt Ruff Clark Coolidge I also better spit out now the writers I'm related to so I can add that if anyone knows of them & dislikes them I'm quite used to not taking it personally. :) My father was Peter Taylor and wrote a novel called A Summons to Memphis, plus lots of (IMO better) books of stories. My mom writes poetry (Eleanor Taylor) and so does my uncle (Donald Justice). I publish about one poem a year in magazines so obscure they would be the perfect place to hide nuclear secrets. None of my writing relatives like Clark Coolidge or the Rolling Stones. Further recommendations that I once put on the feg book list, but I'll repeat cause I think they have relevancy-- Elizabeth Hand--former DC native who fictionally trashes this town in interesting ways. Her 1st novel, "Winterlong" has far-future tribal survivors living in the museums around the mall, performing cargo-cult type rituals regarding their various contents. "Waking the Moon" is a supernatural novel that quotes Roky Erickson a lot & has an H.P. Lovecraft-type meltdown occur at Catholic University. Her book of stories, "Last Summer at Mars Hill" is IMO her best, includes titles like "Snow on Sugar Mountain" and a story about a Syd Barrett-like character (w/ supernatural problems) that references Globe of Frogs. Her latest book, "Black Light" isn't as strong IMO, but it does quote "Marquee Moon." Cordwainer Smith--very lyrical and funny sci-fi from 50s, 60s. He's not totally PC because he worked for the CIA, but on the other hand he's terrific w/ seeing different cultures interacting--like also un-PC Rudyard Kipling. (After a reading I once got Ursula LeGuin to admit to liking Kipling). Least favorite book I finished-- "The Touring Option" by Harlan Ellison & Marvin Minsky. I've liked some stuff by Ellison, but this was totally clunky, bad writing, characters plot. But I finished it for Minsky's ideas about the way the mind works. It caused me to read Minsky's "Society of Mind." Minsky actually looks up to B.F. Skinner, whom I hate, but I think his idea that we are parallel- processing all the time rings true. Ross Taylor "Putney Swope" made me laugh Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 16:16:03 -0000 From: "3 Rose Cottage" Subject: Feg Chine Hope everyone has had as much memorable fun in the sun, beer and BBQ(vegan or not)as desired or advisable. Meaningless Fegdream I was watching TV and the credits came on and one said "Marshall Needleman Armintor." I turned to my family and said " I know him. He's on Feg. He always uses that full name." ??? FegBooks talk-- I second Miles on Gene Wolfe, adding The Devil in the Forest. Also second Susan on Wharton, anything by or on Wharton, a wise and wonderful woman. I see Stephen Frye's come up several times. I think his autobiography is amazingly good in that he manages to be both funny and caring. There arent many books with pathos written by someone too clever by half;-). I wish I could recommend his novels as highly--but I cant. For me they were just alright. Interesting but not as good as the autobiography shows he can do. Glad to see Christopher Alexander come up--and for once I didnt mention him! Till now;-). Jeme and Carole--the other two books in the trilogy didn't suit my intrests as much as A Pattern Language so I really can't much remember their quality. Jill-for your son I fifth Zelasney's Amber series. Also The Demolished Man and The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester, Camp Concentration by Brian Aldiss and More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon. These last ones are all older and I think age-appropriate--but its been awhile since my SF binge so you might want to take a look-see. He -may- be old enough for John Crowley's Little-Big. And for you, if you want some adult feminist SF- how about Joanna Russ's The Female Man, to be read in tandem with Faye Weldon's Life and Loves of a She-Devil;-) And non-SF, but the woman writers thread--Id add Alison Lurie, especially Foreign Affairs and The Truth about Loren Jones. And for Feg sensibility--Im suprised no one has ever mentioned Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood. Both authors are great at invoking the shifting states of the uncanny. BBC news thing posted by Dignan bout cliff collapse on the Isle of Wight: >Walkers were in the Shanklin Chine area As one of the interested-in-words Fegs, Ive got to ask--whats a -Chine- and how is it pronounced? And further from Dignan: >Rob Hall, not surprisingly, is regarded as a >national hero for his selflessness. He showed amazing fortitude and great selflessness in trying to comfort his wife. And it happened in real life. Examples of nobility of spirit are rare, instructive and inspiring. Its almost like people get to thinking the craven is normal and acceptable till you see something like this and realize this is how we're really ment to function. I wonder if it ever went thru his mind that his unselfishness would -well- live on. Cold comfort for him up on the mountain--but perhaps some comfort to his wife and circle. Warning:Kay goes off on a weird tagent Its funny--I wonder if Im alone in this--I respond to acts of virtue as if they were aesthetic acts, their beauty can be radient. The pathos, the courage and most of all the free-willing of them strikes me as sublime in a similar(thou not the same) way as Airscape is beautiful. And when people choose to act like mean-spirited little shits--it strikes me as ugly. And .. er ... smelly;-). Now dosnt this go against the whole modernist/postmodernist idea of the act of gratuitious evil as important, free and beautiful. Its like when I read Gide, it makes sense in the book, partly cause the book is so beautifuly written. But in real life...its gratuitious good which has beauty, not gratuitious evil. Ok--weird musings over. On to the important Robyn-content part of this post. According to TV Guide The BBC is going to do a TV series around Giles's Watcher character from Buffy. Giles will occassionally show up on Buffy--but the actor who plays him wants to go home to England and this is how its working out. Soooo-if they'll be filming in England--how about a Robyn appearence? As another Watcher? A seemingly absent-minded professeur/adept? Or.......And....... Oh yeah.....! Kay _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 09:27:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Stephen Mahoney Subject: Re: hello? you mean to say its not about pearl divers????????????????? I am protesting to my local theatre manager!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On Mon, 28 May 2001, JH3 wrote: > >> has everyone stopped talking, or have I somehow gotten disconnected? No > >> digests for about 36 hours is rare these days on Fegmaniax... > > >Sorry, James - everybody except me is out seeing PEARL HARBOR. > > > Yeah, what WAS the deal with that movie? I go there expecting a nice > little movie about oyster divers, and instead it's this whopping big WAR > movie with zillions of dollars worth of special effects and some mega- > stooopid love triangle subplot! There isn't a SINGLE shellfish of any kind > featured anywhere in the film! After 2-1/2 hours of machine gun fire and > fighter planes whizzing by I went to the ticket guy and demanded my > money back, but he said they only do refunds within the first hour! > What a gyp! (Is that how you spell that, btw?) > > I was thinking of going to see that new John Travolta flick "Swordfish" > next week, but I'll just bet that's ANOTHER deceptive title - there's > probably no seafood content in that movie, either! > > JH3 > Gallons by which daily U.S. oil consumption would drop if SUVs average fuel efficiency increased by 3 mpg : 49,000,000 Source: Sierra Club (Washington) Gallons per day that the proposed drilling of Alaskas Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is projected to yield : 42,000,000 Source: The White House Stephen Mahoney Multnomah County Library at Rockwood branch clerk stephenm@nethost.multnomah.lib.or.us 503-988-5396 fax 503-988-5178 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 09:29:01 -0700 (PDT) From: Stephen Mahoney Subject: Re: worst book EVER! but american psycho was a very good film!IMHO On Mon, 28 May 2001, Andrew D. Simchik wrote: > on 5/27/01 7:35 PM, victorian squid at v.squid@eudoramail.com wrote: > > > I can't comment on "American Psycho", because I haven't read it. I can comment > > on "Less Than Zero". > > I don't know why you would need to. Plenty of critics are available > to expound on what a shitty writer Ellis is, how horrible his books > are, how shallow and empty his writing style, and so on. I'm sure > they, and you, are right. > > I encountered LESS THAN ZERO and moments later, even more significantly, > THE RULES OF ATTRACTION, when I was in high school, if I recall correctly. > What struck me was that both books described a world of rich amoral > heroin and coke addicts, a world so utterly alien to me that it might > as well have been science fiction, a world with a mythical landscape > of palm trees and sunlight, and -- the detail without which it would > all have been a mere curiosity -- a world where people were casually > and without fanfare bisexual. > > If I'd ever encountered that before, it hadn't impressed itself on me > the way this did. It didn't really matter whether the writing was > any good or whether the characters were appealing or three-dimensional > or whatever. The attitude was what I focused on. > > Of course, nostalgia alone doesn't explain why I find Ellis's writing > readable even today, alternately chilling, ridiculous, and hilarious, > or why I liked his latest absurdist horror novel, GLAMORAMA. I guess > I just have horrible taste (see also Duran Duran and Culture Club). > > Or maybe I just read Jay McInerney and you didn't. I'm pretty sure > I read BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY and it made absolutely no impression > on me. Not enough drugs and sex and pretension, I guess. > > I've never been able to finish an "Elric" novel, either. Or one of > Pat Cadigan's cyberpunk novels. I suppose they don't count either > because they're "genre." > > Whatever. > > -- > Andrew D. Simchik, drew at stormgreen dot com > http://www.stormgreen.com/ > Gallons by which daily U.S. oil consumption would drop if SUVs average fuel efficiency increased by 3 mpg : 49,000,000 Source: Sierra Club (Washington) Gallons per day that the proposed drilling of Alaskas Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is projected to yield : 42,000,000 Source: The White House Stephen Mahoney Multnomah County Library at Rockwood branch clerk stephenm@nethost.multnomah.lib.or.us 503-988-5396 fax 503-988-5178 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 17:30:35 +0100 From: "matt sewell" Subject: Re: Feg Chine A chine is, I think, a kind of chasm often found between cliffs on beaches... anyone? It's pronounced to rhyme with spine... My favourite chine: Whale Chine Followed by: Blackgang Chine... Matt >From: "3 Rose Cottage" >Reply-To: "3 Rose Cottage" >To: fegmaniax@smoe.org >Subject: Feg Chine >Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 16:16:03 - -0000 > >Hope everyone has had as much memorable fun in the sun, beer and >BBQ(vegan >or not)as desired or advisable. > >Meaningless Fegdream >I was watching TV and the credits came on and one said "Marshall >Needleman >Armintor." I turned to my family and said " I know him. He's on Feg. >He >always uses that full name." ??? > >FegBooks talk-- >I second Miles on Gene Wolfe, adding The Devil in the Forest. > >Also second Susan on Wharton, anything by or on Wharton, a wise and >wonderful woman. > >I see Stephen Frye's come up several times. I think his >autobiography is >amazingly good in that he manages to be both funny and caring. There >arent >many books with pathos written by someone too clever by half;-). I >wish I >could recommend his novels as highly--but I cant. For me they were >just >alright. Interesting but not as good as the autobiography shows he >can do. > >Glad to see Christopher Alexander come up--and for once I didnt >mention him! >Till now;-). Jeme and Carole--the other two books in the trilogy >didn't suit >my intrests as much as A Pattern Language so I really can't much >remember >their quality. > >Jill-for your son I fifth Zelasney's Amber series. Also The >Demolished Man >and The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester, Camp Concentration by >Brian >Aldiss and More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon. These last ones are >all >older and I think age-appropriate--but its been awhile since my SF >binge so >you might want to take a look-see. He -may- be old enough for John >Crowley's >Little-Big. And for you, if you want some adult feminist SF- how >about >Joanna Russ's The Female Man, to be read in tandem with Faye >Weldon's Life >and Loves of a She-Devil;-) > >And non-SF, but the woman writers thread--Id add Alison Lurie, >especially >Foreign Affairs and The Truth about Loren Jones. > >And for Feg sensibility--Im suprised no one has ever mentioned >Arthur Machen >and Algernon Blackwood. Both authors are great at invoking the >shifting >states of the uncanny. > >BBC news thing posted by Dignan bout cliff collapse on the Isle of >Wight: >>Walkers were in the Shanklin Chine area >As one of the interested-in-words Fegs, Ive got to ask--whats a >-Chine- and >how is it pronounced? > >And further from Dignan: >>Rob Hall, not surprisingly, is regarded as a >>national hero for his selflessness. >He showed amazing fortitude and great selflessness in trying to >comfort his >wife. And it happened in real life. Examples of nobility of spirit >are >rare, instructive and inspiring. Its almost like people get to >thinking the >craven is normal and acceptable till you see something like this and >realize >this is how we're really ment to function. I wonder if it ever went >thru his >mind that his unselfishness would -well- live on. Cold comfort for >him up on >the mountain--but perhaps some comfort to his wife and circle. > >Warning:Kay goes off on a weird tagent >Its funny--I wonder if Im alone in this--I respond to acts of virtue >as if >they were aesthetic acts, their beauty can be radient. The pathos, >the >courage and most of all the free-willing of them strikes me as >sublime in a >similar(thou not the same) way as Airscape is beautiful. And when >people >choose to act like mean-spirited little shits--it strikes me as >ugly. And .. >er ... smelly;-). >Now dosnt this go against the whole modernist/postmodernist idea of >the act >of gratuitious evil as important, free and beautiful. Its like when >I read >Gide, it makes sense in the book, partly cause the book is so >beautifuly >written. But in real life...its gratuitious good which has beauty, >not >gratuitious evil. >Ok--weird musings over. > >On to the important Robyn-content part of this post. >According to TV Guide The BBC is going to do a TV series around >Giles's >Watcher character from Buffy. Giles will occassionally show up on >Buffy--but >the actor who plays him wants to go home to England and this is how >its >working out. >Soooo-if they'll be filming in England--how about a Robyn >appearence? As >another Watcher? A seemingly absent-minded professeur/adept? >Or.......And....... Oh yeah.....! > >Kay > > > > > > > > >_________________________________________________________________ >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V10 #218 ********************************