3.505 announcements (128)
Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Wed, 27 Sep 89 17:33:35 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 505. Wednesday, 27 Sep 1989.
(1) Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 00:15:41 MDT (20 lines)
From: "Stephen R. Reimer" <SREIMER@UALTAVM>
Subject: BYTE on HCY
(2) Date: 27-SEP-1989 11:36:19 GMT (74 lines)
From: AEB_BEVAN@VAX.ACS.OPEN.AC.UK
Subject: World Sacred Literature Trust
(3) Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 12:37:09 +0100 (10 lines)
From: iwml@UKC.AC.UK
Subject: happy.new.year
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 00:15:41 MDT
From: "Stephen R. Reimer" <SREIMER@UALTAVM>
Subject: BYTE on HCY
In case Willard and Ian haven't seen it yet, I thought that I would mention
that there is something of a review of the _Humanities Computing Yearbook_
in the October issue of _BYTE_ (pp. 360, 362) by Hugh Kenner. Calling it
a "review" is something of a misnomer: it is mostly made up of reflections
on the current state of humanities computing using the _HCY_ as its basis,
but it does include some very favourable comments on the book itself as
well.
I thought that it was rather nice to see, in a journal with considerable
non-humanistic readership, some acknowledgement of humanities computing (it
has been quite a few years since _BYTE_ last did an issue on computing in
the "arts") and, more particularly, of the very significant contribution
which the _Yearbook_ has made.
Stephen Reimer
University of Alberta
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------87----
Date: 27-SEP-1989 11:36:19 GMT
From: AEB_BEVAN@VAX.ACS.OPEN.AC.UK
Subject: World Sacred Literature Trust
INTERNATIONAL SACRED LITERATURE TRUST
The following is an extract (reproduced without permission) from the
weekend section of the UK national newspaper The Guardian (23-24 Sept).
written by Elizabeth Heron.
@A revolution in religious publishing is being fomented in the unlikely setting
of an annexe of Manchester polytechnic. this is no palace coup. Its direct
effect will be to make available in English authorised translation the
sacred books of every major world religion, including for the first
time the Quran and the Orthodox Bible, as well as collections of the
oral traditions of indigenous Australians, Africans and Americans.
Its future impact on our understanding of culture, on religious and
anthropological scholarship and the religions themselves is unquantifiable.
Launched at the United Nations by the Duke of Edinburgh it has poet laureate
Ted Hughes as chief literary adviser, Harper and Row as publishers and the
sanction of the Orthodox, Nestorian and Coptic churches as well as Hindu,
Buddhist, Taoist, Sikh and baha'i organisations, with the Muslim world
league ana Jewish religious publishing trust about to sign up.
Its origins are (that) .. three years ago the World wildlife fund for nature
launched an initiative to mobilise grassroots conservation projects by
highlighting the many environmental injunctions scattered in sacred texts
throughout the world. with a network of 60,000 religious groups it also drew
attention to the lamentable state - or lack - of translations available to
advance the argument. Martin Palmer, a specialist on world culture and
consultant to the project, decided the problem should be turned on its head an
set up the International Sacred Literature Trust to develop high quality
English translations of religious classics.
The guiding principle is that the choice of sacred texts and manner of
translation be determined, not by scholars, translators or publishers
but by the religious bodies themselves."
The article the goes on to discuss particular issues such a literary quality,
the position of Muslims on the Quran, the particular problems of the Orthodox
bible(s), the challenge of the representation of the Jewish traditions, and the
native peoples programme. This last reflects most closely the conservation
ethos of the originators of the project. Revenue from translations will
be siphoned back to the peoples concerned to help them fund their
political battles for survival.
The article makes NO mention of machine readable texts, talking throughout
about "the printed word" or "records in a written form"
A lot of questions spring to mind after reading this article. For example:
Are HUMANIST members involved in this project - if so could we have more
up to date details?
Is the project in fact aware of the potential of machine readable texts? If not
is there an initiative HUMANISTs could or should take to educate and support
the trust in efforts to make the texts available in such forms? This
might include making the original language versions available machine
readable, and linking these to scholarly translations and commentaries.
What happens to the classical religions of antiquity, or the records of more
recently defunct religious traditions such as the Lithuanian native religion
that was the last active pagan faith in Europe?
Any comments?
Edis Bevan
Open University, UK
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------39----
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 12:37:09 +0100
From: iwml@UKC.AC.UK
Subject: happy.new.year
Greetings and a Happy New Year on Yom Kippur!
Ian Mitchell Lambert AIBI Network CSEC(UK)
Department of Theological and Religious Studies
University of Kent at Canterbury