|
This a traditional letter column.
You are encouraged to write a letter of comment on anything that you
find worthy of comment. It will (may) be published in this column along
with my reply. As editor I reserve the right to delete material;
however I will not alter the undeleted material. E-mail to me that solely
references the contents of this site will be assumed to be publishable
mail. All other e-mail is assumed to be private. And, of course, anything
marked not for publication is not for publication. Oh yes, letters of
appreciation for the scholarly resources provided by this site will be
handled very discreetly. This page contains the correspondence for
December 1999.
From: Ted Lemon
I really enjoyed it – you obviously put a lot of thought into
deconstructing the story, and came up with several things that I
missed when I read it as a teenager. I’m not sure why people were
arguing so vehemently about it – the power of the story, to me, was
the feeling of being trapped by circumstance into a situation from
which there was no morally correct escape, and in which the blame for
the situation could not be clearly placed on the person on whom one
would have liked to place it.
I think you have the right of it in your description of the power
of the story. The mistake – I will call it a mistake – that people
make is to try to draw a lesson from the story. To be sure there
are lessons to be had, albeit not necessarily the ones that people
draw. The whole notion of learning a lesson carries with it the
hidden thesis that the happy ending is possible if you learn the
right lesson.
I just finished reading the stories and was almost on the floor from
laughing so hard.
From: “Harris, Cebern (student)”
I have just spent something like the last three hours exploring various
nooks and crannies of your web site. This in itself is odd – I rarely do
that any more. I found it b/c, as you may or may not know, your page
detailing the recipe for a
Whole Camel was the cool link of the day at
National Review Online.
The next thing I knew, I’d hit Home and was poking
around for a better idea of who I was dealing with. It was a rewarding
experience.
I suspect that TCE would not be a classic if it were better written. It is
the holes in the logic that exercise the emotions of the readers.
From: Morris M. Keesan”
If we ever wondered where television writers get their ideas, now
we know, and it’s not from a Schenectadian post office box. The writers
at Saturday Night Live appear to be getting their ideas on the web —
the December 4th show included a skit featuring host Christina Ricci as
a contestant on “Who Wants to Eat?” (she won a bowl of rice, then a bag
of wheat, but lost them trying to win the goat, when she couldn’t
correctly identify anorexia).
So now you’re channeling Stewart and Sheinwold? Who’s next? Victor Mollo?
From: “sib d”
Hello, Richard Harter-
Glad the site has tickled your fancy.
From: Gerri Wood
I have sent the stuffed camel recipe to almost all of my friends via
e-mail. No one will make this delicious sounding dish and invite me over
to enjoy it.
From: Harry Palmer
Amen sister. God’s mercy is infinite!
Index of contributors
Other Correspondence Pages
Date: 12/13/99
Subj: Just read your web page on the Cold Equations…
Thanks for the kind words. Sometimes I like to grab hold of
something and really think about it.
I think that having read this story had a *major* effect on how I
turned out from a moral perspective, although not because I actually
understood everything in it. Yes, the thing is incredibly flawed, and
I remember sitting after having read the story trying to think of all
the possible ways it could have turned out differently. But the
beautiful thing about the story is that it made me sit down and
*really* think. I think you would find if you did a really close
study of the people who responded to you that the story affected their
worldview in ways of which they are not even aware.
In the United States the story is a touchstone between two politicized
sentiments, hard vs soft, realist vs bleeding heart, et cetera. For
one side the girl becomes a symbol for people on welfare and people who
sue and collect for the consequences of their own folly. For the other
side the first side are heartless proponents of viscious conservatism.
I suppose that the story has affected people’s worldviews but I get
the impression that people impose their worldviews upon their reading
of the story.
Return to index of contributors
From: Kathleen
Date: 12/12/99
Subj: Darwin Wannabes
Thanks for some hearty laughs,
You’re welcome. I’m not sure I’m up to “Darwin Award of the
Millenium”.
Return to index of contributors
Date: 12/8/99
Subj: Web Site
Oh Gawd, so it is. I didn’t know that; I’m not sure I wanted to know
that. The camel recipe page has some magic mystical power that fascinates
people. A while back some talk show host burbled about whole roast camel
and I got a whole flurry of hits. [Note: National Review has moved on.]
Anyway, I felt I owed you an email after the interesting couple of
hours of not studying for my Evidence exam you have provided me.
But of course. My site exists to provide an alternative to studying for
Evidence exams.
I went through your SF pages with particular interest (and passed the
hilarious
TLOTR sendup/feminist screed along to some friends – w/
attribution, I hope you don’t mind).
No problem. I once posted it on the rec.arts.sf.written newsgroup and some
chap denounced it as post-modernist rubbish.
I read SF almost exclusively –
contemporary fiction bores me – yet I only happened to read
“Cold Equations”
for the first time a few months ago. The problem you detailed in your
article bothered me at the time, too. No, it didn’t bother me enough to
write a thesis on it but I found myself railing, as it were, not against the
cold forces of space but against the impossibly stupid system that made no
more effort to prevent that catastrophe than a simple, ambiguous sign. I was
disappointed to say the least. This wasn’t b/c I didn’t get the deus ex
machina I “expected” but b/c I saw where the author was going, got the point
(I even agreed with it, in a sense – Heinlein once pointed put that the
Universe’s only capital crime is ignorance and I’ve never had cause to
question the truth of that observation) but I just didn’t feel the author
had done the point justice. Better craftsmanship would have yeilded the same
payload without the disappointment.
Heinlein was wrong. The only capital crime is being unlucky – being in the
wrong place at the wrong time. The best you can do is put the odds in your
favor as best you can. It doesn’t really work. In the long run the
universe is going to get you no matter what you do.
I also read a bunch of your other pieces, including the one on not
being a professional poker player.
I liked it a lot. When I was in the Navy
(just a few years ago), as you would no doubt predict, there were still
plenty of savers making a tidy profit on payday. I was a spender, myself,
but I managed to avoid the “I’ll give you 30 bucks on payday for 20 now”
scheme. A lot of my fellows in the barracks didn’t and the guys who never
went out did well off of them. Playing poker in public areas on gov’t
property isn’t as common these days, though I’m sure it happens. I was too
busy hanging with my three buddies – we called ourselves The Four Hoursemen
of the Apocalypse and our stated purpose (which I stole from a Mensa SIG in
my hometown of Louisville, KY) was to end drinking on the planet by drinking
all the alcohol. I didn’t require any explanation of what you meant by ways
of not getting a college degree, either. I’m in law school now, but I didn’t
end up in the Navy b/c of the grand success of my first (expensive) stab at
attending college.
It’s good to see that some things never change. Weapons may change, and the
grunts may come equipped with a different set of genitals but the loan sharks
are always there. From what you say, the interest rate seems to have gone
up. In my day they were content with 5 now for 6 later.
Well, this unsolicited email is getting a bit long and I didn’t write
to give you rthe impression that I thought that just b/c you have a web page
and we had a couple of things in common that you were somehow required to
hear the story of my life, so I’ll break off now. Thanks for the interesting
evening. Feel free to respond – or not – as you wish. I’d welcome hearing
from you, but I won’t be offended if I don’t.
Your letter is appreciated; thanks for letting me know about the National
Review link. Your letter will appear in the letter column; if you didn’t
check that out you should.
Return to index of contributors
Date: 12/8/99
Subj: Hot New Russian game
Oh my. I suppose it’s a natural – one of those things that many people
think of at the same time. There are a lot of sick minds out there.
Return to index of contributors
From: Chip Hitchcock
Date: 12/8/99
Subj: Energy requirements…
It’s very ancient; I stole it from Donald Parson (Fall of the
Cards) but it probably dates back to Hoyle.
Return to index of contributors
Date: 12/7/99
Subj: Mash Note
Just spent an immensly enjoyable hour wandering around your site. Who is
this masked man? Found you via Darwin Awards my husband keeps e-mailing me.
Had to find the mad-man behind the mode. Just wanted to let you know how you
have delighted this beleagured soul. I laughed so hard I think I pulled
something…. Sibley
Now I like that – the masked mad man behind the mode.
Return to index of contributors
Date: 12/5/99
Subj: Stuffed Camel
Gee, I can’t imagine why not. Maybe you should tell them that
you are bringing a hundred guests.
Return to index of contributors
Date: 12/2/99
Subj: A poor girl’s testimony of God’s LOVE
Hallelujah!!
Return to index of contributors
This page was last updated January 21, 2007.
It was reformatted and moved December 15, 2004
|