Johns Reconsidered
New York Johns is enjoyably provocative. I concur in your opinion of O'Hara, possible agree on Updike, haven't read much Updike, but think you should look at Cheever again. He may not produce the best exemplum of syntax around, but for satire and whimsy he takes the blue ribbon.Alcoholism did keep him at adolescent level for a long time, but I think he overcame that eventually. He knew good times and bad, his sexual ambivalence confused him, and he wasn't too domesticated; however, he wrote of what he knew with some vision. I can't say that I believe his protests against writing "crypto-autobiography," but most of us write from experience anyway.
I've been reading his journals, at least the ones that have been published. And only the editor know how heavily those were edited. I find them inspiring in terms of comprising a bona fide writer's notebook, full of ideas that can lead to stories.
Ralph T. Williams
rwilliam@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu
February 17, 1995
Flogging Dead Metaphors?
Congratulations on a job well done. The articles were excellent for the most part, though the piece Alien Lands in Cyberspace was way too pretentious and used too many dead metaphors for this "cyberspace" thing.Landlady was excellent, realistic, funny, and incredibly deftly done. The Buddha article made me sit up and take notice, too. I've been through similar experiences with soul-searching and I've independently come up with some of the ideas for coping with the pain of Life that the author talked about. Some of what she said made me think of this quote:
There is no Darkness in Eternity but merely Light too dim for us to see.Don't know if that's appropriate, but whatthehell. I'll definitely be reading this again whenever the next issue comes out.
Matt Graham
mhgraham@umich.edu
February 3, 1995
Is There Anybody Out There?
Do you know how to find the WELL or other interactive humorous chat line? Or bulletin board?Carolyn Aidman
Aidmanc@dms.mail.ufl.edu
December 20, 1994Welcome to Enterzone! You can visit the WELL's Web site at http://www.well.com/ (the easiest way would be to follow the highlighted link in this reply). If you're looking for chats or bulletin boards, you'll have to ask your system administrator for what sort of access to dicussion groups is available to you.
Hope this helps! Write if you get work.
--xian
E.T. Secrets Threaten the Government?
Thanks for helping me find some interesting stuff in the web. I just found out about Mosaic and how to ramble around the www. The one page Roswell: Case Not Closed Just Yet was particularly interesting as I recently finished a paperback on this very subject.If the truth about the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence is ever revealed to the masses the world will change forever. I can see where organized religion would have a major problem with this. It's another genie the government won't let out of the bottle 'cause it will never be put back in.
I keep hoping for a close encounter someday. I believe we're not alone.
Jack Stafford
stafford@zenith.dnet.hac.com
December 14, 1994
We're All in This Together
About Alien Lands in Cyberspace, beautiful, I really loved it and will be taking sustenance from it message for many, many sessions to come.I'm currently building a site I call Pen n Sword Hypersite. This site will attempt to bring the works of hypermedia poets, writers and artists to the Web. We also intend to build as comprehensive a list of other Web art resources as possible.
Though we're only a few weeks old, we'd be honored to have you visit our page, and we are adding a direct link to Alien Lands, as well as Enterzone, from here. Any comments you may have, critical or otherwise, are welcomed.
Regards, James A. Gardner
jag@rahul.net
December 10, 1994