From: "Erica VD Ginter" <eginter at klgai.com> To: "'WSFA members'" <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> Subject: [WSFA] Re: Texas, more than you thought Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 16:45:10 -0400 Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> That quote is even better. Consistency is sometimes wise, and you need the right consistency for frosting or you will have trouble getting it to ashere to your cake or hold its shape for icing decorations. Erica Van Vocabulary -----Original Message----- From: Strong, Lee [mailto:StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL] Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2002 4:30 PM To: 'WSFA members' Subject: [WSFA] Re: Texas, more than you thought Thank you. I will probably adopt quotation marks. I believe that Asimov said that Ralph Waldo Emerson said that "A foolish and rigid consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." -----Original Message----- From: Erica VD Ginter [mailto:eginter at klgai.com] Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2002 4:27 PM To: 'WSFA members' Subject: [WSFA] Re: Texas, more than you thought Technically, the titles of books should be italicized and shorted works be inside quotation marks. But I don't think the troublr of italicizing is worth the bother in such an informal medium as e-mail. As a wise person once said (the name escapes me at the moment), "Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds." If that is true, I've worked with many a small mind over the years! Erica -----Original Message----- From: Strong, Lee [mailto:StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL] Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2002 9:10 AM To: 'WSFA members' Subject: [WSFA] Re: Texas, more than you thought Erica, Yes, I would like to borrow _Alternate Realities_ at the next WSFA meeting. I looked for it in two library systems and they don't have it. I did find a copy of Heinlein's _The Number of the Beast_ and started rereading it for his thoughts. My previous read influenced my thoughts on this subject. And as a professional proofreader, is it correct to indicate the title of a book by quotation marks or underscores or what? I have been using quotation marks for short stories and before-and-after underscores to simulate italics for full length books, etc. However, most people use quotation marks for both, and I request your advice. Lee -----Original Message----- From: Erica VD Ginter [mailto:eginter at klgai.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 12:47 PM To: 'WSFA members' Subject: [WSFA] Re: Texas, more than you thought This discussiond reminds me of "fictons," created by Heinlein, in which all possible imagined universes exist; each such universe is a ficton. Spider Robinson has adopted the idea and used it with distinction in some of his Callahan's stories. I am also reminded of one of my favorite nonfiction books, "Alternate Realities: The Search for the Full Human Being," by Lawrence LeShan (Ballantine 1976, NY, ISBN 0-345-3494-5). LeShan talks about the different approaches to viewing the universe we all share, i.e., the religious/mystical vs. the scientific, and argues the validity of each approach. I should reread it and review it for the journal, but I just bought Stan Robinson's new book, soooooo... (It's received so many excellent mainstream reviews that I had to go to 4 bookstores to find it! We're proud of you, Stan!) Erica -----Original Message----- From: Strong, Lee [mailto:StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL] Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 7:57 AM To: 'WSFA members' Subject: [WSFA] Re: Texas, more than you thought Sam, I understand your point of view and agree with it in part. However, I think we should reserve the term "alternate history" for universes where objective history differs one from another. Otherwise, a useful term acquires a totally different meaning and becomes almost useless. Perhaps we should use "ideoverse" to describe an individual worldview within a single universe by analogy with the established term "ideolect" used by speech scientists to describe individuals' unique speech sub-languages within a standard language. -----Original Message----- From: Samuel Lubell [mailto:lubell at cais.com] Sent: Monday, April 08, 2002 11:26 PM To: WSFA members Subject: [WSFA] Re: Texas, more than you thought At 09:01 AM 4/8/02 -0400, you wrote: >Sam, > If you're really interested, I think I can find my hard copy >reference. Most of the proposals I read in a bound master's thesis at the >University of Mississippi. > >Lee > Not that interested, sorry. But I will comment that every work of history is an alternate history as two historians, looking at the same events will come up with different interpretations.