Usenet 1994 January/usenetsourcesnewsgroupsinfomagicjanuary1994.iso/answers/sf/written-intro

Internet Message Format | 1993-12-22 | 33KB

Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!usc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news.intercon.com!digex.net!digex.net!not-for-mail
From: [e-mail] (Laura Burchard)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.sf.misc,news.answers,rec.answers
Subject: rec.arts.sf.written FAQ
Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written
Date: 22 Dec 1993 23:22:17 -0500
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Message-ID: <2fb6dp$[e-mail]>
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Keywords: FAQ, sf, answers
Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.arts.sf.written:46188 rec.arts.sf.misc:6772 news.answers:16100 rec.answers:3444

Archive-name: sf/written-intro
Last updated: 18 Dec 1993

[Note: I'm updating this FAQ slightly; if you have comments about what
should be added or changed, now is a good time to send them to me.]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the frequently asked questions (FAQ) list for rec.arts.sf.written.
It is maintained by Laura Burchard ([e-mail]).  Improvements to
this list are welcome.


            Table of Contents

 0. Introduction
 1. Story identification requests
 2. Spoilers
 3. Author's name in the header
 4. What books or stories are about X?
 5. What books have been written by author X?
 6. List of the Hugo, Nebula, or World Fantasy Award winners
 7. Science Fiction Archives
 8. Does anyone want to talk about X?
 9. Defining Science Fiction and/or Fantasy
10. Dividing line between Science Fiction and Fantasy
11. The SF-LOVERS Digest
12. Star Trek
13. Cyberpunk
14. Common abbreviations
15. Filking (Filksinging)
16. Kilgore Trout
17. Can the X beat the Y?
18. Clarke's Laws
19. HAL vs. IBM
20. Johnny Rico's ethnic group (Starship Troopers)
21. Science Fiction Book Club
22. The fourth book of Alexei Panshin's Anthony Villers series
23. The sequel to Stephen R. Boyett's ARCHITECT OF SLEEP
24. The Vanilla Needle story by David Brin
25. PJF after Steven Brust's name
26. SF themes in music
27. Oldest Living SF Authors
28. William Ashbless
29. Black SF authors
30. Publishing History of _State of the Art_ by Iain Banks
31. Pronunciation of Cherryh *
32. Stephen Jay Gould and Steven Gould
33. Other frequent subjects
34. Help file for accessing the SF-LOVERS Archives.

* Significant modification to this entry
** New entry

----------------------------------------------------------------------
0. Introduction

Rec.arts.sf.written is a newsgroup devoted to discussions of written
science fiction and fantasy.  It is a high volume newsgroup and this
article is intended to help reduce the number of unnecessary postings,
thereby making it more useful and enjoyable to everyone.

If you have not already done so, please read the articles in
news.announce.newusers.  They contain a great deal of useful
information about network etiquette and convention.

Please keep in mind these points:

      - Always remember that there is a live human being at the other
    end of the wires.  In other words, please write your replies
    with the same courtesy you would use in talking to someone
    face-to-face.

      - Try to recognize humor and irony in postings.  Tone of voice
    does not carry in ASCII print, and postings are often snapped
    off quickly, so that humorous intent may not be obvious.  More
    destructive and vicious arguments have been caused by this one
    fact of net existence than any other.  It will help if
    satiric/ironic/humorous comments are marked with the "smiley
    face," :-)  Also note that some people refuse to use the
    smiley.

      - The net is a highly asynchronous medium.  It can take several
    days for an article to make it to all sites.  It is also quite
    common for followups to messages to reach a site before the
    original.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Story identification requests

"Does anyone know this story?"  <plot summary follows>

When making this kind of request, ask that all responses be e-mailed
back to you.  One way to encourage e-mail responses is to set the
followup-to line to poster (i.e. Followup-To: poster).  After having
found out what it is, then post the correct answer to the net.

If you know the answer but are unable to send a message to the requester,
wait a few days.  It's likely that someone else will post the correct
answer, thus sparing you the effort.

Do not post messages like "I want to know, too" to the net.  E-mail the
person who asked the question and request that they send you any
information they get by e-mail.  Only if you cannot reach the person by
e-mail *and* no one has posted about the request after several days
should you post.

Three of the most common requested stories are:

  1) There are some time travellers to the age of dinosaurs.  They have
  to stay on a special floating path to avoid changing the future.
  However, one steps off the path.  When they return to the future,
  things are subtly changed.  The guy who steps off the path then looks
  at his shoe and finds a dead butterfly. == A SOUND OF THUNDER by Ray
  Bradbury

  2) An expedition to a dead star discovers that the supernova had
  destroyed an entire civilization.  When they compute the exact time
  the star exploded, they find that it was seen on earth at the right
  time to be the Star of Bethlehem. == THE STAR by Arthur Clarke

  3) A special kind of glass has been invented where light takes years
  to pass through it.  Panes of this glass are hung in scenic areas and
  then sold to be used as picture windows. == LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS
  by Bob Shaw

----------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Spoilers

Any message which reveals significant details of the plot of a book
should be flagged with "SPOILER" in its subject line (preferably) or at
least in the body of the message.  Be considerate to other readers,
don't ruin the surprises.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Author's name in the header

When discussing an author, a good practice to follow is the begin the
subject line with the author's name followed by a colon.  Example:

   Subject: Jordan: Yet another Jordan thread

Be sure to change the subject if the topic shifts to a different author.

This practice will allow those who do not care to read about that author
to automatically "kill" (mark as already read) those threads they do not
want to read.  The colon is there to allow the news software to
distinguish certain author's names (e.g. Julian May) from common English
words.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. "What books or stories are about X?"

When making these kind of requests, ask that all replies be e-mailed to
you and that you will summarize (set the Followup-to to poster to
encourage e-mail response).  Note that a summary is not just
concatenating all the replies together and posting the resulting file.
Take the time to strip headers, combine duplicate information, and
write a short summary.

Also note that at least two subjects, Arthurian and Robin Hood books,
have FAQs posted to rec.arts.books and news.answers.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
5. "What books have been written by author X?"  "What books are in
series Y?"

A number of bibliographies have been compiled and posted to the net by
John Wenn.  These bibliographies also contain info on which books are
in a series or in the same universe.  The most up-to-date bibliographies
are availiable via ftp from world.std.com (192.74.137.5) [user
anonymous, any password], directory pub/jwenn.

They are also in the sf archives (see entry 7. Science Fiction Archives
below).  In the archives, the bibliographies are in directory
pub/sfl/authorlists.  File names are generally LastName.Firstname (e.g.
Niven.Larry).  Case *does* count.

Requests for more bibliographies may be made to John at
[e-mail].


----------------------------------------------------------------------
6. List of the Hugo, Nebula, or World Fantasy Award winners

Lists of award winners are in the Science Fiction archives on
gandalf.rutgers.edu (see entry 7. Science Fiction Archives below).
The lists are in directory pub/sfl with these file names:

hugos.txt
nebulas.txt
world-fantasy-awards.txt


----------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Science Fiction Archives

The SF-LOVERS archives are in gandalf.rutgers.edu.  There are three ways
of accessing them, one by direct ftp and two mail servers.  The help
file for accessing them is long, so it has been placed at the end of
this list (see 34. Help file for accessing the SF-LOVERS Achives).

For European readers, you may want to access the archives at the Lysator
Computer Club, Linkoping University, Sweden.  It's e-mail address is
ftp.lysator.liu.se (130.236.254.1).  The administrator is Mats Ohrman
(email: [e-mail]).  The bibliographies are in directory
/pub/sf-texts.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
8. "Does anyone want to talk about X?"

If nobody seems to be discussing what you want to talk about, post a
(polite) message opening the discussion.  Don't just say, "Does anyone
want to talk about X" or "I really like X" however; try to have
something interesting to say about the topic to get discussion going.

Don't be angry or upset if no one responds.  It may be that X is just a
personal taste of your own, or quite obscure.  Or it may be that X was
discussed to death a few weeks ago, *just* before you came into the
group.  (If this is the case, you'll probably know, though, because
some rude fool will probably flame you for "Bringing that up
*AGAIN*!!!"  Ignore them.)


----------------------------------------------------------------------
9. Defining Science Fiction and/or Fantasy

Many people have attempted to define them and probably the best answer
was given by Damon Knight: "Science Fiction is what I point at when I
say Science Fiction."  Please do not discuss this topic unless you feel
you have a truly novel definition.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
10. Dividing line between Science Fiction and Fantasy

Many people have also attempted to pinpoint this and had no better
success.  Virtually every answer you give will fail to clearly indicate
which category a large number of books belong to.

Again, please don't discuss this topic unless you feel you have a truly
novel answer.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
11. The SF-LOVERS Digest

The SF-LOVERS Digest is a service for those who cannot read the
rec.arts.sf newsgroups directly.  It is a compilation of the articles
posted to sf.misc, sf.announce, sf.fandom, sf.movies, sf.tv, sf.written
and sf.reviews which is sent out periodically via e-mail.  The
moderator, Saul Jaffe, does a certain amount of editing when compiling
the Digest.  Duplicate information is eliminated and the articles are
organized by topic.  Also, most meta-discussions are not included in
the Digest.

To subscribe, unsubscribe, report problems, etc., send e-mail to
[e-mail].  To post articles to the various
newsgroups use the following addresses:

       Topic                            Address
       -----                            -------

       Written SF                       [e-mail]
       Sf on Television                 [e-mail]
       Sf Films                         [e-mail]
       General discussions that don't
         fit specifically in the other
         topic headings                 [e-mail]

Due to the high volume of mail, it's quite likely that administrative
type messages sent to the wrong address will be ignored.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
12. Star Trek

There is a hierarchy of newsgroups for Star Trek, rec.arts.startrek.*.
If you have access to netnews, use it for discussions about any Star
Trek subject (old series, new series, movies, novels, etc.).  If you
are absolutely sure you cannot access the startrek newsgroup, and you
*must* post to sf.written, include the phrase "Star Trek" in the
subject line.

Do not post flames about people violating this guideline.  Use e-mail
to request they follow it.  It's likely that this person is reading
rec.arts.sf-lovers via the SF-LOVERS Digest and has no access to
netnews or rec.arts.startrek.  If so, that person will not see your
flame because discussions of what's appropriate in the newsgroup are
not included in the SF-LOVERS digest.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
13. Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk is a subgenre of SF which (usually) combines high technology
("cyber") with an alienated, often criminal, subculture ("punk").  Some
people consider cyberpunk to be a Literary Movement; others consider it
a marketing gimmick.  Arguing about which it is is pointless and not
encouraged in this newsgroup.  Probably the best definition parallels
the one for Science Fiction (see 8. Defining Science Fiction and/or
Fantasy above).

There is a news group called alt.cyberpunk which is the best place to
discuss cyberpunk.  A comprehensive list of cyberpunk works can be
gotten by sending e-mail to John Wichers at [e-mail].


----------------------------------------------------------------------
14. Common abbreviations

    AFAIK -- "As Far As I Know"
    BTW   -- "By the way"
    FTL   -- "Faster than light"
    FWIW  -- "For What It's Worth"
    FYI   -- "For your information"
    IMAO  -- "In my arrogant opinion"
    IMHO  -- "In my humble (honest) opinion"
    ISBN  -- "International Standard Book Number"
    ROTF  -- "Rolling on the floor"
    ROFL  -- "Rolling on the floor, laughing"
    RPG   -- "Role playing games", like D&D (Dungeons and Dragons)
    RSN   -- "Real Soon Now" (== within the next decade or two)
    SMOF  -- "Secret Master Of Fandom"
    STL   -- "Slower Than Light"
    wrt   -- "with respect to"
    YMMV  -- "your milage may vary"


----------------------------------------------------------------------
15. Filking (Filksinging)

Filking, or filksinging, is SF/Fantasy fan folk music.  The term
derives from a typo in the word "folksinging" made in a program for a
convention many years ago.  Filksongs are often parodies of popular
tunes or folk songs.

The newsgroup alt.music.filk is dedicated to discussion of filking.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
16. Kilgore Trout

Kilgore Trout is a fictitious SF author that appears in several books
by Kurt Vonnegut.  VENUS ON THE HALF-SHELL by Kilgore Trout was written
(with Vonnegut's permission) by Philip Jose Farmer.

There are no other books by Kilgore Trout.  After Venus was published,
many people thought that Vonnegut had written it.  Vonnegut did not care
for this and refused Farmer permission to write any more.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
17. "Can the X beat the Y?" where X and Y are mighty ships or alien
races from different space opera books/movies/series.

These kinds of discussions are fairly pointless.  Please keep them off
the net.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
18. Clarke's Laws

(This entry was written by Mark Brader.)

Clarke's Law, later Clarke's First Law, can be found in the essay
"Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination", in the collection
"Profiles of the Future", 1962, revised 1973, Harper & Row, paperback
by Popular Library, ISBN 0-445-04061-0.  It reads:

# [1]        When a distinguished but elderly scientist
#        states that something is possible, he is almost
#        certainly right.  When he states that something
#        is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

Note that the adverbs in the two sentences are different.  Clarke continues:

#    Perhaps the adjective "elderly" requires definition.  In physics,
#    mathematics, and astronautics it means over thirty; in the other
#    disciplines, senile decay is sometimes postponed to the forties.
#    There are, of course, glorious exceptions; but as every researcher
#    just out of college knows, scientists of over fifty are good for
#    nothing but board meetings, and should at all costs be kept out
#    of the laboratory!

Isaac Asimov added a further comment with Asimov's Corollary to Clarke's
Law, which he expounded in an essay logically titled "Asimov's Corollary".
This appeared in the February 1977 issue of F&SF, and can be found in the
collection "Quasar, Quasar, Burning Bright", 1978, Doubleday; no ISBN on
my copy.  Asimov's Corollary reads:

% [1AC]        When, however, the lay public rallies round an
%        idea that is denounced by distinguished but elderly
%        scientists and supports that idea with great fervor
%        and emotion -- the distinguished but elderly
%        scientists are then, after all, probably right.


So much for Clarke's First Law.  A few pages later on, in the final
paragraph of the same essay, Clarke writes:

# [2]        But the only way of discovering the limits of the
#        possible is to venture a little way past them into
#        the impossible.

To this he attaches a footnote:

#    The French edition of [presumably, the first edition of] this
#    book rather surprised me by calling this Clarke's Second Law.
#    (See page [number] for the First, which is now rather well-
#    known.)  I accept the label, and have also formulated a Third:
#
# [3]        Any sufficiently advanced technology is
#        indistinguishable from magic.
#
#    As three laws were good enough for Newton, I have modestly
#    decided to stop there.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
19. HAL vs. IBM

There is a relationship between HAL (the computer in 2001: A Space
Odyssey) and IBM.  If you add 1 to each letter in HAL you get IBM.

According to Clarke, this relationship is entirely accidental.  In
fact, he claims that if he had been aware of it, he would have chosen a
different name for his computer.

HAL stands for Heuristically-programmed ALgorithmic computer, although
it's likely that this is a backformed acronym.  That is, the name HAL
was chosen and then a suitable phrase was found for it to be an acronym
of.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
20. Johnny Rico's ethnic group (Starship Troopers)

What ethnic group does Johnny Rico, the protagonist in Heinlein's
STARSHIP TROOPERS, belong to?

(The following answer is from a posting by Eric Raymond.)

From page 205 of the 1968 Berkeley edition (end of Chapter XIII):

    I said, "There ought to be one named _Magsaysay_."
    Bennie said, "What?"
    "Ramon Magsaysay," I explained.  "Great man, great soldier -- probably
  be chief of psychological warfare if he was alive today. "Didn't you
  study any history?"
    "Well," admitted Bennie, "I learned that Simo'n Bolivar built the
  Pyramids, licked the Armada, and made the first trip to the Moon."
    "You left out marrying Cleopatra," I said.
    "Oh, that.  Yup.  Well, I guess every country has its own version of
  history."
    "I'm sure of it." I added something to myself and Bennie said, "What
  did you say?"
    "Sorry, Bernardo. Just an old saying in my own language.  I suppose
  you could translate it, more or less, as `Home is where the heart is.'"
    "But what language was it?"
    "Tagalog.  My native language."
    "Don't they talk Standard English where you come from?"
    "Oh, certainly.  For business and school and so forth.  We just talk
  the old speech around home a little.  Traditions, you know."
    "Yeah, I know.  My folks chatter in Espan~ol the same way.  But where
  do you--"  The speaker started playing "Meadowland"; Bennie broke into
  a grin.  "Got a date with a ship!  Watch yourself, fellow!  See you."

There is no room at all left for misinterpretation.  Johnny Rico is a
Filipino; Tagalog is a Philippine language, Ramon Magsaysay is a hero
in the Philippines, and many Filipinos have Spanish names.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
21. Science Fiction Book Club

About once a year someone asks about the SFBC and the resulting
discussion inevitably goes like this:

A: I love it.  I get hard cover books for about half the bookstore
   price.  Plus they have these omnibus editions of various series so
   you can pick up several books in one volume.

B: Yeah, but I keep losing the monthly cards and end up buying or
   having to send back books that I don't want.

C: You should do like I did.  I called them up and got on the
   "Preferred Member Plan".  On this plan I only get books when I send
   back the card.

D: But what about the quality of the books?

A: They're printed on acid-free paper.  The binding and general
   packaging are inferior to the regular hardbacks, but they will
   easily outlast a paperback.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
22. The fourth book of Alexei Panshin's Anthony Villers series

Three books were published in the Anthony Villers series: STAR WELL,
THE THURB REVOLUTION, and MASQUE WORLD.  A fourth book was promised at
the end of the third book and was to be titled, THE UNIVERSAL
PANTOGRAPH.  It was never published.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
23. The sequel to Stephen R. Boyett's ARCHITECT OF SLEEP

Due to a disagreement with his publisher, the sequel was not published.
Nor is it likely to be published.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
24. The Vanilla Needle story by David Brin

In David Brin's novel, SUNDIVER, he make frequent mention of a previous
episode involving Jacob Demwa saving the Vanilla Needle and his first
wife falling to her death in the process.  The details are sufficient
that many suspect that this story was actually written.  As far as
anyone knows, if it has been written, it has not been published.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
25. PJF after Steven Brust's name

The letters PJF are appended to Steven Brust's name in some of his
books.  What do they mean?

PJF = Pre-Joycean Fellowship

The name is modelled on that of an artist's group named the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.  A number of writers have appended it
including Brust, Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, Jane Yolen, Pamela Dean and
Neil Gaiman (this is not an exhaustive list).  Many, but not all of
them are members of Minneapolis Fantasy Writer's Group, the
Scribblies.

In the words of Pamela Dean, here is roughly what the PJF is trying to
do:

   "... we are trying to undo the separation of the so-called popular
   values and traits in literature (which probably include straight-
   forward narration) and the so-called literary values and traits
   (which probably include stream-of-consciousness writing).  We don't
   always succeed; we don't always try; we don't feel that writers
   doing other things are evil.  But we are trying to reunite, in our
   work, the popular and the literary.  Every one of us has a different
   definition of those terms and a different notion of how what we are
   trying to do should be accomplished."


----------------------------------------------------------------------
26. SF themes in music

A list of songs which have science fictional themes is maintained by
Rich Kulawiec.  This list is posted to news.answers periodically.  If
you can not find it there, e-mail Rich at [e-mail].
Alternate e-mail addresses for Rich are [e-mail] or
pur-ee!rsk.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
27. Oldest Living SF Authors

Based on Tuck's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SF AND FANTASY, the oldest living SF
writers are:

    Frank Belknap Long, 27 APR 1903
    L. Sprague De Camp, 27 NOV 1907
    Jack Williamson, 29 APR 1908
    Andre Norton, 1912
    A. E. van Vogt, 26 APR 1912
    R. A. Lafferty, 7 NOV 1914
    Charles L. Harness, 29 DEC 1915
    George Turner, 1916
    Jack Vance, 28 AUG 1916
    Arthur C. Clarke, 16 DEC 1917
    Frederik Pohl, 26 NOV 1919
    Sam Moskowitz, 30 JUN 1920
    Ray Bradbury, 22 AUG 1920
    Kurt Vonnegut, 11 NOV 1922


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
28. William Ashbless

Who is William Ashbless?  Both Tim Powers (THE ANUBIS GATES) and James
Blaylock (THE DIGGING LEVIATHAN) have him in their books.  Is this the
same character?

William Ashbless was a penname that Powers and Blaylock used to publish
cowritten poetry in college.  When they both needed a name for a poet
character in their books, they independently used the same name.  After
this had been pointed out to them by their editor, they got together
and added details to make it look like it was the same guy.


--------------------------------------------------------------------
29. Black SF authors

Are there any black SF authors?

Yes.  The three most prominent are Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler and
Steven Barnes.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
30. Publishing History of _State of the Art_ by Iain Banks

_The State of the Art_ exists in two incarnations.  First, there was a
novella published by Ziesing, an American small press.  The British
edition, published by Orbit, is a collection of short stories
containing the aforementioned novella and several more stories, two of
which are Culture stories.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
31. Pronunciation of Cherryh

C. J. Cherryh's original last name was Cherry.  The terminal H is
silent.  The H was added because her first editor thought that Cherry
sounded too much like a romance writer.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
32. Stephen Jay Gould and Steven Gould

These are two different people.  Stephen Jay Gould is the well-known
Harvard paleontologist and author of several non-fiction books about
evolution.  Steven Gould is the author of _Jumper_, an sf novel.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
33. Other frequent subjects

Some subjects have generated long and acrimonious arguments (flamewars)
in this group.  Please think twice before posting anything on these
subjects.

    1. Robert A. Heinlein's attitudes towards women especially as
    reflected in his female characters.
    2. Orson Scott Card's attitudes towards homosexuality.  These
    attitudes are reflected in a column he wrote for Sunstone
    magazine.  The column has been reprinted in _A Storyteller in
    Zion--Essays and Speeches_.

Other subjects, while not generating flames, have been discussed
numerous times in this group.  Please consider carefully before
starting dicussions on these topics.

    1. The nature of time travel.
    2. Asking everyone what the first sf they ever read was.
    3. Casting your favorite book as a movie.

The above topics are not forbidden--just be sure you know what you are
doing if you bring them up.


--------------------------------------------------------------------
34. Help file for accessing the SF-LOVERS Archives.

(This entry was provided by Saul Jaffe.)

   This is the "help" file for accessing the SF-LOVERS archives via FTP.
Described in this document are three different methods of accessing the
files.  Please choose the method that is most appropriate for you.

   Please remember that the machine you are connecting to,
GANDALF.RUTGERS.EDU, is a unix machine.  As with all unix machines,
filenames are case sensitive.  This means that filenames and directory
names *must* be entered as given.

To use anonymous FTP interactively:

To access the archives, you need to use the login function of ftp to
connect to gandalf.rutgers.edu as an anonymous or guest user.  Below is a
sample session (The "%" and "ftp>" are prompts - yours may vary):

% ftp gandalf.rutgers.edu
Connected to gandalf.rutgers.edu.
220 gandalf.rutgers.edu FTP server
Name (gandalf.rutgers.edu:<userid>): anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send ident as password.
Password:
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
ftp> cd pub/sfl
ftp> get <filename>
ftp> quit

To use BITFTP (BITNET users only):

To access the archives, the principle is the same as that for Internet
users described above.  However, access is handled via a special email
server since there is no way to run ftp interactively from many BITNET
sites.  You can send mail to [e-mail] with the following as the
text of the message:

FTP gandalf.rutgers.edu
USER anonymous
CD pub/sfl
GET <filename>

You will get two mail messages back.  One from the BITNET server itself
informing you that the request went through and the other will be the
actual file retrieved.  Each file you request will be returned to you as a
separate file.

Instructions for the SF-Lovers FTP Mail Server:

Installed on gandalf.rutgers.edu is a FTP Mail Server which will send you,
via mail, files from the archives.  To use the mail server, send email to:
[e-mail] with your commands in the body of the
message.  The currently supported commands for this server are:
[key: [] encloses optional info
      <> a placeholder for an argument - substitute actual data
      {} encloses synonyms for a command
]

     Command                 Args            Descriptions

     quit                                    End session.

     help                                    Get this message.

     info                                    Get information about
                                               what's available.

     ls                 [-l -s <filename>]
     {dir}                         Get full listing of files.
     {index}

     connect            <directoryname>      Connect to subdirectory
     {cd}                                     or, with no args, to top
                                              level directory.

     get                <filename>           Get specified file
     {send}

     backissue          <volume> <issue>     Get a back issue of the Digest
                                             from the archives.  If
                                             <volume> is the special case
                                             '-' or '0' it indicates
                                             the current volume.

All commands may be abbreviated to the fewest number of characters that
uniquely identifies them.  For instance, "backissue" may be abbreviated
"b", "quit" may be abbreviated "q", etc.

You may specify as many commands as desired in any order desired however,
"quit" will always end the session and commands afterward will be ignored.
If you want multiple files (or multiple back issues), you must specify one
"get" (or "back") command for each file (or issue) desired.  The command
"backissue" may be used to get a copy of a back issue of the Digest from
any volume including the current volume up to the last issue number
produced.  However, the server will NOT send back an entire volume of the
Digest.

Each file (or back issue) you request will be sent to you as a separate
mail message.  The commands "help" and "info" will instruct the server to
send you the "help" and "info" files respectively.  For each message you
send to the server, you will also receive a log message indicating any
errors encountered during processing as well as the number of files the
server believes were requested and the number it sent.

The FTP server may be used to obtain a complete listing of the files in the
archives (via the "ls" command) as well as to retrieve files which have
been compressed due to space considerations.  The server will automatically
uncompress files before shipping them to you so you do not need an
uncompress tool to receive these files.

Future enhancements to the software are currently being considered.  If you
have ideas or suggestions, please send them to [e-mail].

Below is a sample email message sent to the server with some commentary:

   Date: Tue, 20 Oct 92 21:21:41 EDT
   From: [e-mail] (Saul)
   Subject: test

   help             [gets a copy of this message]
   info                [gets a copy of the info message]
   ls                [gets a    list of the available files]
   ls -l            [gets a list of the available files, their
                                 sizes and last date modified]
   ls -l world-fantasy-awards.txt [lists information about a specific file]
   get world-fantasy-awards.txt      [gets the specified file from the archives]
   connect authorlists        [connect to the authorlists subdirectory]
   get Asimov.Isaac             [gets the authorlist for Isaac Asimov]
   cd                [go back to top level directory]
   back 16 13            [get issue #13 of Volume 16]
   back - 26            [get issue #26 of the current volume]
   quit                [end the session]





--
-------------- Laura Burchard  /  [e-mail] ----------------
I'm sure that there are nice sysadmins, just like there are gentle,
enlightened executioners.  It's just that the job description gets in
the way of empathy.   -- Grady Ward