5.0506 More on Computers and LIterature (5/82)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Fri, 6 Dec 1991 18:24:56 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 5, No. 0506. Friday, 6 Dec 1991.


(1) Date: Thu, 5 Dec 91 16:57:53 -0800 (20 lines)
From: Tom Maddox <tmaddox@milton.u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: 5.0501 Rs: Computers and Literature (4/44)

(2) Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1991 21:59 EST (12 lines)
From: WATTS@BUTLERU.BITNET
Subject: Re: 5.0501 Rs: Computers and Literature (4/44)

(3) Date: Fri, 6 Dec 91 00:18:50 EST (28 lines)
From: Eric Rabkin <USERGDFD@UMICHUM.BITNET>
Subject: Computers and Literature

(4) Date: Fri, 06 Dec 91 08:39:21 CST (10 lines)
From: slatin@utxvm.cc.utexas.edu
Subject: Re: 5.0501 Rs: Computers and Literature (4/44)

(5) Date: Fri, 6 Dec 91 11:25:25 EST (12 lines)
From: allegre@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Allegre Christian)
Subject: computers in literature

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 91 16:57:53 -0800
From: Tom Maddox <tmaddox@milton.u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: 5.0501 Rs: Computers and Literature (4/44)

Seeking to study computers and literature without taking science fiction
into account seems to me by turns preposterous and perverse. Even given the
constraint that the computers in question should be more-or-less "real world,"
one would have to look at sf because sf writers have consistently been more
interested in actual computers and the issues surrounding them than their
non-sf writer brethren.

Hence I conclude that the original query was not well thought out,
and I would encourage its author to rethink his position. However, if I'm
wrong, and the query fairly represents a research proposal, I'd like to hear
more about it because it does seem so wrong-headed.

(Disclaimer: I'm a science fiction writer who's done a fair amount of
writing about computers.)


(2) --------------------------------------------------------------21----
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1991 21:59 EST
From: WATTS@BUTLERU.BITNET
Subject: Re: 5.0501 Rs: Computers and Literature (4/44)

P.D. James's most recent mystery novel, _Devices and Desires_, gives
a fairly prominent place to computers. The computer system at the local
nuclear power station is under attack by a virus apparently launched by
anti-nuclear activists.

Bill Watts
Butler University
(watts@butleru)
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------32----
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 91 00:18:50 EST
From: Eric Rabkin <USERGDFD@UMICHUM.BITNET>
Subject: Computers and Literature

If we're on to Vonnegut and *Player Piano*, we're into
SF and the field is suddenly enormous. The story about
the thinking computer that is most succinctly poignant
from Vonnegut is "EPICAC" in *Welcome to the Monkey
House*, a story in which a poetry writing computer
falls in love.
One of the classics is Heinlein's *The Moon Is
A Harsh Mistress* in which a computer awakens to
consciousness and effectively runs a space opera
version of the American Revolution. But the machine
is ultimately by its own existence a threat to the
party it supports and it disappears (whether voluntarily
or not is left inexplicit).
The computers often turn out nowadays to be
gods of sorts, as in Varley's *Millennium*, although,
as in Pohl's *Man Plus*, the god is not necessarily
benevolent.
Michael Rodemer, is this the sort of material
you're after?

Eric Rabkin esrabkin@umichum.bitnet
Department of English esrabkin@um.cc.umich.edu
University of Michigan office: 313-764-2553
Ann Arbor MI 48109-1045 dept : 313-764-6330
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------12----
Date: Fri, 06 Dec 91 08:39:21 CST
From: slatin@utxvm.cc.utexas.edu
Subject: Re: 5.0501 Rs: Computers and Literature (4/44)

I've missed the initial round of messages on this one, but you might want
to look at William Gibson & Bruce Sterling, The Difference Engine (1991), a
novel whose premise is that Babbage's Difference Engine was a huge success
and made an enormous, um, difference in the world. Pardon if I'm repeating
an earlier suggestion.

(5) --------------------------------------------------------------28----
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 91 11:25:25 EST
From: allegre@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Allegre Christian)
Subject: computers in literature

In response to Michael Roedemer question about computers in literary works,
I am sure he remembers Umberto Eco's IL PENDOLO DI FOUCAULT.
Godd luck in this groundbreaking research.

Christian Allegre
allegre@ere.umontreal.ca