5.0509 Rs: Hypertext; Survey; Icon; Greek Dictionary (6/115)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Fri, 6 Dec 1991 18:36:45 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 5, No. 0509. Friday, 6 Dec 1991.


(1) Date: Thu, 5 Dec 91 16:52:06 -0800 (21 lines)
From: Tom Maddox <tmaddox@milton.u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: 5.0500 On Hypertext

(2) Date: Fri, 06 Dec 91 08:53:52 CST (17 lines)
From: slatin@utxvm.cc.utexas.edu
Subject: Re: 5.0500 On Hypertext

(3) Date: Fri, 06 Dec 91 10:01:38 EST (16 lines)
From: CC017106@BROWNVM
Subject: The Questionable Survey

(4) Date: Fri, 6 Dec 91 00:29:02 EST (25 lines)
From: Eric Rabkin <USERGDFD@UMICHUM.BITNET>
Subject: 5.0503 N&Qs: Icons;

(5) Date: Fri, 6 Dec 1991 15:39 EST (24 lines)
From: Jim Wilderotter -- Georgetown Center for Text and
Technology <WILDER@GUVAX>
Subject: "Icon"

(6) Date: Fri, 6 Dec 91 14:49:48 EST (12 lines)
From: dthel@conncoll.bitnet
Subject: Greek Dictionary

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 91 16:52:06 -0800
From: Tom Maddox <tmaddox@milton.u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: 5.0500 On Hypertext (3/96)

As I got some very helpful replies to my own questions about existing
hypertext, let me offer the following: for poetry, William Dickey has some
extremely interesting work done in Hypercard--he used to be on this list, I
believe; if he does not pop up, send me e-mail, and I'll tell you how to get
in touch with him; for fiction, Michael Joyce's "Afternoon" is available
as a self-contained Storyspace reader from Eastgate in Cambridge, Mass--damn,
I thought I had their address and phone number here, but I don't--they also
publish some other hyperfiction and non-fiction; also, a journal called
_Writing on the Edge_ did a special issue that includes hypertexts and
hypercritical (if you see what I mean) responses--very much worth looking at,
if you're interested in literary issues surrounding hypertext (in which case
you should also look at Delany and Landow, _Hypermedia and Literary Studies_,
MIT Press, 1990).

If anyone is interested, I'll follow up with some addresses; unless,
that is, someone else picks up this particular ball and does something with
it.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------19----
Date: Fri, 06 Dec 91 08:53:52 CST
From: slatin@utxvm.cc.utexas.edu
Subject: Re: 5.0500 On Hypertext (3/96)

Sean Carton asks about hypertext/hypermedia fiction, poetry, etc.: Eastgate
Systems, in Cambridge (Mass.), publishers of StorySpace (the Mac hypertext
package), also publishes hypertext fictions, including, e.g., Michael
Joyce's _Afternoon_. You might contact Joyce directly-- he's at the Center
for Narrative and Technology, Jackson Community College, Jackson MI; Stuart
Moulthrop, now at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, has been doing some interesting
work on hypertext in both theory and practice, as has Jay David Bolter,
author of _Writing Space_ (Lawrence Erlbaum, 1991); Bolter is also at
Georgia Tech. John McDaid at NYIT has been working for years on a
hypermedia fiction. The Spring 1991 issue of Writing on the Edge includes
a section on hypertext (guest-edited by Moulthrop) and including a couple
of hypertext fictions.

(3) --------------------------------------------------------------19----
Date: Fri, 06 Dec 91 10:01:38 EST
From: CC017106@BROWNVM
Subject: The Questionable Survey

Regarding the survey on gays and lesbians in academia, I too had serious
misgivings, which I shared personal with Lcrew@andromeda, and those misgivings
are not laid to rest. As I read the survey, and memory may be failing me,
since I don't have it in front of me, it didn't ask for how many gays/lesbians
are there in academia, rather how many so-called 'outs' were. These would be
individuals who are presumably completely public about their sexual preferences
. (And I agree with the criticism, "so what--what is the relevance to one's
teaching,etc.?") Thus, it was with surprise that questions concerning the
likelihood of ones knowledge being accurate followed. What could be the
bearing of such a question in this case?
Don Keefer
Rhode Island School of Design
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------29----
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 91 00:29:02 EST
From: Eric Rabkin <USERGDFD@UMICHUM.BITNET>
Subject: 5.0503 N&Qs: Icons; Renaut de Beaujeu e-texts (2/24)

> A colleague who works in Byzantine art history is interested in all uses
> of the word icon. She would like to know exactly who started using it for
> computer "icons", and when and precisely why (is it just a cute word for
> "picture," or is there more to it?). Can anyone help?
>
In "Sophist" 235b et seq Plato has Socrates distinguish
between the making of copies exact in all proportions,
colors, etc., which are called icons, and semblances
which *appear* to be the things represented but are
not actually identical to them and are called phantasms.
This couple of pp I find a fascinating introduction to
the difficulties underlying so many discussions of
representation and imitation.
I presume the worship of icons (Russian Orthodox, for
example, not Silicon Valley Low Church) rests on the
notion that the icon is somehow perfect and not
fantasmagorical--or even metaphorical. In that usage,
then, computer icons are misnamed. A cute picture of
an ashcan is not a memory wipe.

ESRABKIN@UMICHUMEric Rabkin
(5) --------------------------------------------------------------29----
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 1991 15:39 EST
From: Jim Wilderotter -- Georgetown Center for Text and
Technology <wilder@guvax>
Subject: "Icon"

According to _The_Roots_of_English_ by Robert Claiborne (p. 257),
the term "Icon" is derived from the root "Weik" (in see root: Weik-3).
The exact entry reads:

WEIK-3, to be like, whence Gk eikon, image, whence the
religious IKON and ICONOCLAST who is an "image breaker"
(see: Loose Cannons and Red Herrings: A Book of Lost Metaphors.
New York: Norton [1988])

Hope this is what you're looking for.

Jim Wilderotter
Georgetown University

P.S.:

For those of you who are interested:

Claiborne, Robert. The Roots of English.
New York: Time Books (Random House Books) [1989]
(6) --------------------------------------------------------------16----
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 91 14:49:48 EST
From: dthel@conncoll.bitnet
Subject: Greek Dictionary

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but to my knowledge the only e-version
of a dictionary for ancient Greek is the one that is part of the Perseus
project being developed at Harvard. As many Humanist subscribers are no doubt
aware this is a hypetext project comprising texts of Greek works, translations
of these works, archaeological drawings, photogaphs of sites, and so on. The
intermediate Liddell-Scott lexicon, which has no copyright restrictions, is
also included. Whether it would save any time over flipping pages is not
something I can answer. Dirk t.D.Held, Connecticut College.