jtd@duts.UUCP (John DeMent) (11/02/85)
In "World Without End", Joe Haldeman states that he made a
"grevious mistake on the very first page" of his first ST novel,
"Planet of Judgment." [Look in "Author's Note"]
He further states the mistake "has to do with a word that
that sounds similar to my name."
Does anyone know what this mistake is ?
Possibilities:
1) Mr. Scott planning an afternoon maneuvers drill ?
2) Calling Dr. Atheling "supercargo" ?
3) Is the command chair really "soft" ?
4) Could a shift begin at 1200 hours ?
John T. DeMent
Amdahl Corporation
Sunnyvale, CAbulko@ut-sally.UUCP (William C. Bulko) (11/06/85)
[The postman hits! --More-- ] [You have new mail. ] In article <156@duts.UUCP> jtd@duts.UUCP (John DeMent) writes: >In "World Without End", Joe Haldeman states that he made a >"grevious mistake on the very first page" of his first ST novel, >"Planet of Judgment." [Look in "Author's Note"] >He further states the mistake "has to do with a word that >that sounds similar to my name." > >Does anyone know what this mistake is ? > Oh heck. Yes, I do -- sort of. First, let me point out that all my Star Trek stuff is at my parents' home 600 miles away, and so since I can't go verify anything I say, I'm working from memory here. Anyway, when the book came out way back when, I spent hours puzzling over that question myself. I believe that Mr. Haldeman made mention of a contest in his book also, and so after the "expiration date" passed, I wrote him a letter asking about the answer. He responded with a very nice letter (which I still have somewhere in my closet back home) saying -- and here's where I'm stretching my memory -- that his "grievous mistake" was erroneously identifying the author of a quote he included in his book. (Evidently the "first page" was intended to count from that page, not from the leaves included by the publisher.) The clue described the fact that the true author's name was very similar to his own. If anyone is REALLY curious about details, I suppose I could call home and ask someone to dig around for the letter, but I don't think I could tell you much more. I was actually quite disappointed in the answer, since I had never heard of either author (false and correct) and therefore would not have been able to guess the error; however, I was happy to get a letter from Mr. Haldeman. Hope this helps some people sleep at night better. Bill _______________________________________________________________________________ "To err is human; to admit it is not." Bill Bulko Department of Computer Sciences The University of Texas {ihnp4,harvard,gatech,ctvax,seismo}!sally!bulko _______________________________________________________________________________