andree@uokvax.UUCP (02/06/84)
#R:qubix:-80100:uokvax:5400032:000:775
uokvax!andree Feb 5 00:20:00 1984
/***** uokvax:net.sf-lovers / qubix!jdb / 1:27 am Feb 1, 1984 */
As LeGuinn said: [and I quote only from memory]
If you grant me this one preposterous premise -- that this man's dreams can
change reality -- I'll try to make the rest as real and believable as possible.
Dr Memory
...{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!decwrl!qubix!jdb
/* ---------- */
In that case, she failed. The reason I said <uncomplimentary> about the book
was that I didn't like it. Watching people flail around for far too many
pages, trying to find a solution that was obvious two pages after the
problem was stated, does NOT make a good book. The only reason I waded
through the rest of it was in hopes that LeGuinn had a suprise in store.
I lost.
"Clem Clone: back to the shadows again!"
<mikestevens@inuxh.UUCP (W Stevens) (02/06/84)
> In that case, she failed. The reason I said <uncomplimentary> about > the book was that I didn't like it. Watching people flail around for > far too many pages, trying to find a solution that was obvious two > pages after the problem was stated, does NOT make a good book. The > only reason I waded through the rest of it was in hopes that LeGuinn > had a suprise in store. I lost. You thought the point of the story was to find a solution?? -- Scott Stevens AT&T Consumer Products Indianapolis, Indiana, USA UUCP: inuxh!stevens
amigo2@ihuxq.UUCP (John Hobson) (02/06/84)
Some years ago, when Roger Duffey (where have you gone, Roger?) was moderating sf-lovers and it was part of the ARPAnet (the only way someone on the UUCPnet could get to it was through a system at Berkeley), I mentioned that the Lathe of Heaven reminded me of an H. G. Wells story called The Man Who Could Work Miracles. The Wells story was about a man who could make things happen just by wishing them. He finally tries to duplicate the feat in the book of Joshua (making the sun stand still in the sky) but forgets to take into account the law of conservation of angular momentum and manages to remove earth's atmosphere and everything not literally nailed down. He finally wishes he were back at the point before he realized he had this power and that he never discovers it. Didn't Roger Zelazny also write a short story along these same general lines? John Hobson AT&T Bell Labs Naperville, IL (312) 979-0193 ihnp4!ihuxq!amigo2
andree@uokvax.UUCP (02/12/84)
#R:qubix:-80100:uokvax:5400036:000:631 uokvax!andree Feb 9 12:24:00 1984 /***** uokvax:net.sf-lovers / inuxh!stevens / 5:42 pm Feb 6, 1984 */ You thought the point of the story was to find a solution?? -- Scott Stevens AT&T Consumer Products Indianapolis, Indiana, USA UUCP: inuxh!stevens /* ---------- */ No, the point of a story (any story) is to entertain. Watching incompetents bungling around is NOT entertaining - unless you enjoy being on the rack. I might have taken an entirely different few of "The Lathe of Heaven" if there hadn't been such an obvious solution. As it was, any qualities that the novel may have had were drowned in the agony produced by watching bunglers at work. <mike