Linguistics & Science Fiction Network Online Bulletin
Linguistics & Science Fiction Network Online Bulletin
October 2, 1998
** NOTE: This bulletin is mailed only to members of the Linguistics & Science Fiction Network, and only by request. If you receive a copy in error, please let me know and I'll remove you from the list immediately, with my apologies.
Greetings from your still (and even more) frazzled editor. It's not just the Book Tour From The Underworld (September 1st through September 27th, and may you never have to deal with such an interminable conglomeration of mixups and confusions and chaotic incompetence!) It's not just getting back to a business and home and gardens and family that has been abandoned for almost a month -- although the post office, which was holding three huge boxes of mail for us, was awfully glad to see us come through their door.
It's not the fact that we have to go out again shortly for more book touring, with dates and agendas that change twice a week so that at the moment I don't even know when we leave. The only thing I'm sure of, at least for the moment, is that I'm scheduled to be on the "Today Show" in New York on October 17th.
All of that creates frazzles. For sure. But I think my state of delapidation this morning is primarily due to the fact that George and I -- from 10 p.m. last night till 1 a.m. this morning -- had a small copperhead snake loose in the house behind an entire wall of built-in bookcases and cabinets. (The day before we left, it was a neighbor's bull in our walnut patch; now it's snakes behind the furniture; what next, dragons in the enchiladas?) For a while it looked as though we'd have to move to a motel and have the house fumigated. But George is a marvel; with a complicated series of mirrors and flashlights and Lysol spray and coathangers and yardsticks -- and more -- he did find and slay the snake. I'm sorry he had to kill it, but there just wasn't any choice; copperheads are very poisonous and make poor housepets, and there was no way to lure it out of the house alive. (Anyone out there who knows a way to do that, please let me know; the saucer of milk that they always use to lure cobras in the stories doesn't interest copperheads and rattlers.)
This was our first snake-in-the-house here in Arkansas, and the first I've had in many many years. When I was a child we used to come home in the summer and find huge blacksnakes curled up in the bathtub, but that was easier; they were much too big to crawl behind furniture and into tiny cracks and crevices.
This bulletin is early rather than late because, as noted above, I'm not sure when we're leaving or when we'll get back. And it will be short this time....
1. The upcoming newsletter is the Linguistics/Science Fiction/Music Interface issue. Many thanks for all the materials you've been sending for it; please continue. I'll get the issue out to you just as quickly as possible, I promise. And many thanks for the continuing additions and corrections you've been sending for our Hillbilly SF Bibliography.
2. The website for my grandmothering book is now up and running, although I'm still waiting for instructions on how to do my monthly bulletin and email there. The address is <www.abbeville.com/grandmother>.
No science fiction to be found there, and precious little linguistics -- but give me time.
3. In the last bulletin and newsletter I told you about the article by Dave Grossman on children and violence in the U.S. .. I've now had a chance to read his book and will be reviewing it in the Verbal Self-Defense issue. It's titled "On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society," by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, from Back Bay Books (that's a Little, Brown and Company imprint); the ISBN is 0-316-33011-6. Very carefully done, very thorough, and a reasonably interesting read. (That's a blazingly positive recommendation, coming from a pacifist.)
He does an especially good job with the question of why our children are becoming so violent, and with the extraordinary contrast between the Vietnam War and previous wars we were involved in. If he's correct in his claims, we're facing serious trouble that won't be easily fixed. Last time I checked, you could read a batch of reviews of the book at www.amazon.com; just type "Dave Grossman" in the search box, or the book title. (Note: I haven't yet read Joe Haldeman's "Forever Peace"; if you have, I'd welcome your reviews or comments.)
4. I 've found a Website that is truly magnificent. It's called "Needle in a Cyberstack," it has links to every conceivable kind of information, beautifully organized instead of just on an interminable list.... The address is http://home.revealed.net/albee. No "www." "Home revealed" refers to the fact that the owner of the site is deeply involved in homeschooling; presumably the site's primary purpose is to make information available to people who are homeschooling their kids. This is one you really do have to take a look at; even my brother was impressed.
5. <snipped at authors request>
That's all for now; back to you soon, I sincerely hope...
Suzette
