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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (37260)	5/9/1999 11:41:00 AM
From: Graystone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Fiction, the heart of the dream or Plainly, he did have a space suit I would like to quote here from Requiem The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Awards to Robert Anson Heinlein the NASA DISTINGUISHED PUBLIC SERVICE MEDAL In recognition of his meritorious service to the Nation and mankind in advocating and promoting the exploration of space. Through dozens of superbly written novels and essays and his epoch making movie, Destination Moon, he helped inspire the nation to take its first step into space and onto the moon. Even after his death, his books live on as testimony to a man of purpose and vision, a man dedicated to encouraging others to dream, explore and achieve. Signed and sealed at Washington, D.C. this sixth day of October Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Eight /s/James C. Fletcher Administrator, NASA Reprinted without permission from "Requiem" New Collected Works By Robert A. Heinlein and Tributes to the Grand Master. Edited By Yoji Kondo A Tom Doherty Associates Book New York p. cm. ISBN 0-312-85168-5 1. Science fiction, American. I Kondo, Yoji II Title. PS3515.E288R4 1992 91-38909 813'.54-dc20 CIP

To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (37260)	5/9/1999 11:56:00 AM
From: Graystone	Respond to of 108807

Yoji Kondo Born in Japan, Yoji Kondo has lived in the USA since 1960 and is now an American citizen. He holds his Ph.D in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of Pennsylvania and has been with NASA since 1965. At the time of the Apollo missions to the moon, he was head of the Astrophysics Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center. He currently serves as director of the International Ultraviolet Explorer Satellite Observatory at Goddard Space Flight Center. He has taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Oklahoma, The University of Houston, the University of Pennsylvania and George Mason University. Dr. Kondo served as president of the IAU (International Astronomical Union) Commission on "Astronomy from Space," and is currently president of the IAU Commission on "Close Binary Stars." A recipient of the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement, he has published over 130 papers in refereed scientific journals, and has edited eight books in astronomy and astrophysics. He holds a black belt in judo and aikido, and his favorite pastimes include teaching and practicing martial arts. - Charles Sheffield (Ibid) re : Tributes to the Grand Master

To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (37260)	5/9/1999 12:02:00 PM
From: Father Terrence	Respond to of 108807

Aristotle applies today more than at any time in history.

To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (37260)	5/9/1999 8:44:00 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 108807

They may be wonderful moving stories of the time, but certainly have little impact on the course of history. I have two answers to that. 1) Anybody who thinks fiction can't have an impact on history should think of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," "The Jungle," and many other fiction books that had an enormous impact on history. 2) If you define history in a very limited way, basically as a record as wars and revolutions, kings, presidents, and dictators, with some economic and scientific events tossed in for flavoring, you may be right. If you define history as what happens to all the people, I submit that Shakespeare has had more impact on history than most wars. P.S. what have you guys been DOING on this thread? Top of the hot list, 300+ messages in less than a day. Some people spend WAY too much time on their computers. They should sit back and read a good book (defined as one that's on MY list! <g>)

To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (37260)	5/10/1999 1:34:00 PM
From: jbe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Chuzzlewit, I am surprised at you. What a wrong-headed argument! I love virtually all the books I have excised from the list. But they are fiction. They may be wonderful moving stories of the time, but certainly have little impact on the course of history. Hence, you exile Dickens, and include Freud. But in today's prevailing view, much of Freud is fiction as well. As for your criterion - that to make it onto your exclusive list books must have had a traceable "impact on history" (which you implicitly define, as Christopher quite rightly observed, as the history of kings & queens) -- the problem with it is that you would have to put many very bad books on your list. Mein Kampf, for example. Influential? Yes, definitely. Should historians of ideas read it? Yes, definitely. But if an "ordinary" cultivated person had to make a choice between reading David Copperfield or Mein Kampfm,, say, should he choose Mein Kampf? Definitely NOT. (IMO, of course.) First of all, let us examine this question of "historical influence". Take Dickens. His characters have entered our everyday language. "He's a Scrooge." "Don't be such a Pecksniff." "He talks like Mr. Micawber." etc., etc. Take Shakespeare. People are constantly quoting Shakespeare -- without even being aware of it. Our speech is permeated with phrases drawn from Shakespeare, in other words. Only the Bible can rival Shakespeare, in terms of impact on our language. By the way, historians use precisely this criterion -- the degree to which an author has affected the language people have used down the centuries -- as a way of determining his or her influence. I should add that one of the most flourishing fields of History these days is the study of "mentalities", which attempts to understand how the "ordinary" man, the "anonymous" man, viewed his world. It is with clues like language that the study of mentalities must work. Joan Edit: P.S. And what about books that should have had an impact on history, but unfortunately did not? After all, books, like people, often do not get their just deserts in their lifetimes... Losers can often be much more interesting, and much more profound, than winners. Also true of books as well as of people.