SchoolMarm Cyrus

[Paul Mackin]

On Tue, 2004-10-19 at 09:31, Ghetta Life wrote:
> >From: joeallonby <vze422fs at verizon.net>
> >
> >on 10/18/04 7:13 PM, jolly at jollyrogerx99 at yahoo.com wrote:
> >
> > > IN fact I have read much of GR, and there is a fairly respectable 
> >tradition of anti-GR criticism.
> >
> >Kind of says it all, doesn't it. After you've read the whole thing maybe 
> >five times, you'll start to get it.
> 
> Yep.  GR MUST be read about 5 times before it really starts to cohere (and 
> it's infinitely better to figure it out yourself than to rely on critics).  
> If jolly hasn't even finished it once, he's got a LOT of nerve (idiocy) 
> telling this list we don't understand it.  Take another graduate course, 
> dude.  Or maybe just read GR a few times.


I agree about the critics.  Don't let them in the house. I don't
consider the Guide to GR mainly criticism however. Its most useful
feature is the background information that some people already have but
many don't. It is useful for the reason that what one will get out of
the book will depend on what one brings in. I think that a person
picking up the book for the first time today will probably have to
struggle harder (and reread more times) than someone who read it in
1973, because temporal proximity to the events helps. Or maybe the
latter point is wrong. It's better to be able to check GR after the
fact.