From the New World

[Grant White]

Jeffrey,
If you be scanning beware that copyright/wrong rule, But I'd like to know 
how they turn out. Which edition etc etc usw usw.

And don't worry about the pool, it's an inflatable three ring kind, goes 
all the way up to my shins, but the blue Tasman Sea is but a short walk 
from my door. 

One of my old Professors did a lot of early work applying computation 
into literary criticism, early writers like Austen and Hardy were sampled 
and plugged in to the early eighties computing power of the U of New, and 
mapped along an axis. It was all fairly simple stuff, revolving around 
particular word use, but he did produce a rough kind of map, which placed 
writers into a stylistic grouping which usually paralleled their 
particular period. One notable kickback was Erica Jong's novel Fanny, 
which broke the mold, even from her other novels, and sat closer to Ms. 
Austen than her 20thC peers.

Now I mention this because I think it would be interesting to sample TRP 
and see where he fits on the axis, and indeed to see where he sits with 
hisownself (tales of authorial collectives notwithstanding). And it would 
also be a neat party trick to mention casually that "the" occurs n times in 
the collected works of TRP.

Ah the holidays, so much time.....

Cheerfully,
Grant



--                                                                       -
Grant White                        |
Multi-media & Special Collections  |
Librarian                          | Internet:ulgw at dewey.newcastle.edu.au 
The Central Coast Campus           |
Information Resource Centre        | Ph  (intl+61+43) 484026
University of Newcastle, AUSTRALIA | Fax (intl+61+43) 484215

On Tue, 26 Dec 1995 Jhildt at aol.com wrote:

> Well, guys, the only thing that makes me slightly uncomfortable is the
> "homogenized" bit.  I know "hg" didn't say it exactly that way, and I know I
> introduced the idea of computer "haves" and "haven'ts," but . . . Isn't there
> a pretty broad range of folks out there, even limiting our search, as we
> must, to the wired ones?  I mean, I don't have a barbie (or even a barbecue).
>  I don't even live in a house (that's Nueva Jork for you).  
> 
> To stick with the back-fence analogy, I find it truly wonderful that this
> technology allows like-minded (mostly) individuals from anywhere in the
> world, who would never otherwise know of each other's existance, to chat on a
> topic of common interest (elbows on that virtual fence). 
> 
> I suspect that if everyone watching this list lived in the same town (odd
> thought) most of us would probably get to know each other at some point
> because we're all interested in TP's writing in particular,  and good (often
> out-there) writing in general.  But we don't live in the same town.  Yet here
> we are.  Millenium magic. 
> 
> On the other hand, the VAST majority of net-crusers out there couldn't care
> less about this list (and we can all be grateful for that).  It's still a
> pretty diverse world, even on the net.
> 
> In closing, Grant, let me say that you have my sincere admiration:  you got
> the kiddies a pool while you're still on a monochrome computer. 
> Bless you, my good man.
> 
>         And to all a good night,
> 
>                                       from Jeffrey in the frozen Apple.
>