Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 15:43:04 -0700
From: Ermes Ventisetti (monachus@xtreme4tag.it)
Subject: Books and old culture on Alpha

           Hello gang,

           I don't remember if the spacecrew of the moonbase has a library.I
ask this,because I have sees a film of the SF
           that has done me think.
          The film is:   FAHRENHEIT 451
                              US (1967)

          Cast includes

               Julie Christie,Jeremy Spenser,Alex Scott,Oskar Werner

          Review

               Odd and generally slow-going adaptation of Ray Bradbury
science fiction depicting future Earth civilization where
               all printed reading material is banned.

          Questions:

               On the base Alpha the old terrestrial culture is beloved? Do
the books have read? Or the spacecrew do despise the
               reading?


           Ermes
           I



Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 16:53:32 -0700
From: Ronald Dudley (dudleyrd@expert.cc.purdue4tag.edu)

In "One Moment of Humanity", Zamara absorbs computer records of
William Shakespear's "Julius Caesar" and "Othello".  She was
looking for stories of murder and violence.  She should have
looked in the Bible, especially the books of Joshua and Judges.
She would have also found lots of stories about sex in the Bible too,
but the Vegan androids already knew how to make love. Somehow.



Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 19:08:42 -0700
From: Sfcafeguy@aol4tag.com
Subject: Re: Books and old culture on Alpha

Ermes asks about books on Alpha.

Well, Ermes, it's just my take on human nature, but I think we will have
traditional books around with us for some time to come.  As an example, I'm
in the middle of Philippa's "Transformation" novel (which is in the form of
files on my computer) but since I can't take "Transformation" into the
bathtub with me (it's on my ThinkPad and THAT'S not going into the bath!) I
haven't found the time to continue it even though I'm enjoying it.  Since I
could read the paper version of Earthfall in the bath, getting around to
reading it is no problem.  (Everybody who knows me knows that I am a fiend
for long, hot baths.  My friends in New York had a Jacuzzi bath with a neck
bolster, and I swear, eight years later, they still comment on how much time
I spent in their bathtub soaking and reading in that tub.)

I would imagine that after the novelty of CD-ROM-based literature wears thin,
and has trickled down to the masses as ordinary, "real" books will actually
be looked on as premium items with value added cachet since they are
comparatively expensive to produce and will be seen as a "rich man's item."

I would assume that each Alphan could only take a certain number of his or
her prized possessions up to Alpha for his or her tour of duty (Victor's
violin in "Alpha Child" for instance, or his 80 year old brandy in "The Black
Sun"), and I'm sure most of them would have taken at least some books --
maybe not a great number, but surely some.  I'm also sure that they would
have had a great deal of Earth's literature and art available through the
computer displays no matter where they were on Alpha.  For this reason they
probably didn't need a formal library, but who knows?  The library of the
future may be more a combination of art gallery, online access space, and
occasional social function/reception hall (with poetry and literature
readings, disussion groups, film showings, etc.), rather than the way we
think of it now.  The books themselves may actually come to be looked upon as
relics for display rather than to actually be read directly.

Robert



Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 05:33:09 -0700
From: GLEN_MCBRIDE@BayNet44works.com (Glen McBride)
Subject: Re: Books and old culture on Alpha

Hi
There are at least two episodes I can recall off the top that refer to
reading or more specifically a library in Alpha, these being:

1) Testiment of Arcadia
2) Bringers of Wonder (Can't remember which part, one or two)

Regards
Glen McBride
Melbourne Australia
(Where the weather is AWFUL but the beer is great)