4.0087 Humanist Structure (69)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Mon, 21 May 90 17:19:42 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0087. Monday, 21 May 1990.


(1) Date: Sat, 19 May 90 11:36 EDT (12 lines)
From: LINDYK@Vax2.Concordia.CA
Subject: RE: 4.0069 Humanist Structure

(2) Date: Sat, 19 May 90 19:58:16 CST (7 lines)
From: Natalie Maynor <MAYNOR@MSSTATE.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 4.0078 Stucture of Humanist

(3) Date: 20 May 1990, 13:50:08 EDT (16 lines)
From: FLANNAGA at OUACCVMB
Subject: Splitting Humanists

(4) Date: Mon, 21 May 90 12:55 CDT (10 lines)
From: Mary Massirer <MASSIRERM@BAYLOR.BITNET>
Subject: moderated lists

(5) Date: Sun, 20 May 90 11:31 CST (24 lines)
From: <ENG003@UNOMA1>
Subject: topics on humanist

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 19 May 90 11:36 EDT
From: LINDYK@Vax2.Concordia.CA
Subject: RE: 4.0069 Humanist Structure (210)

Hello,

Please keep the list the way it is now. Personally, it fits a need that
I don't find on other lists.

Sincerely,
Bogdan KARASEK
lindyk@vax2.concordia.ca
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------12----
Date: Sat, 19 May 90 19:58:16 CST
From: Natalie Maynor <MAYNOR@MSSTATE.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 4.0078 Stucture of Humanist (263)

Oops. Obviously others had threatened to "leave the room." I guess
that was in one of the chunks I deleted unread. I still vote for the
unmoderated style. Natalie Maynor (nm1@ra.msstate.edu)
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------21----
Date: 20 May 1990, 13:50:08 EDT
From: FLANNAGA at OUACCVMB
Subject: Splitting Humanists

We might divide ourselves into those who think the term *humanist*
includes having a sense of humor (although that quality may be difficult
to define) or a sense of playfulness, and those who think that life is
All Business. But splitting hairs or dividing people wouldn't seem to
be the mission of humanists. We do work very hard on understanding our
machines, our programs, our texts, all day long. Can we have a few
cakes and ale at night? in between the discussions of collecting
everything ever written by human beings in one database or the
discussions of how to define catachresis, synecdoche *or* nerd (don't
forget the Popular Culture people as well as the New Historicists)? Roy
Flannagan

(4) --------------------------------------------------------------17----
Date: Mon, 21 May 90 12:55 CDT
From: Mary Massirer <MASSIRERM@BAYLOR.BITNET>
Subject: moderated lists

Another note in the discussion of what if anything to do with Humanist:
leave her as is, and Please! keep it moderated. I got off Folklore
because it is unmoderated and was driving me crazy. Humanist is sane
and reasonable and much easier to manage than unmoderated lists. Whew!
I feel better!
Mary Massirer (massirerm@baylor)
(5) --------------------------------------------------------------31----
Date: Sun, 20 May 90 11:31 CST
From: <ENG003@UNOMA1>
Subject: topics on humanist

In the five months since I subscribed to HUMANIST, the postings have
ranged from the airily abstract to the immediately specific, from high
seriousness to play; I cannot believe, as Mr. Greenberg seems to imply,
that our editors past or present have censored postings to eliminate
"intellectual substance." If he and those he speaks for bewail the lack
of such intellectual substance, why don't they post such items rather
than complain of their absence? If, as he implies, such postings are
"unimportant" to other subscribers of HUMANIST, then he perceives, not
the absence of "the implicitly democratic potential of electronic
communication," but its working. Democratically active audiences may
choose not to respond to messages uninteresting to them.

Perhaps more broadly relevant, however, may be Greenberg's conception of
"intellectually substantial material," since his examples seem to be all
of a theoretical nature. Are we, in fact, in semantic difficulties with
"intellectual substance" meaning "theoretical" and "trivia contests"
meaning "applied" knowledge?

Judy Boss
University of Nebraska at Omaha