Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!rdin!fred
From: fred@rdin.UUCP (Fred Maslin)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Doesnt anyone read out there
Message-ID: <310@rdin.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 27-Aug-83 12:46:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: rdin.310
Posted: Sat Aug 27 12:46:25 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 29-Aug-83 21:51:04 EDT
Lines: 23

c R*p*u
    Now that Im back on the net for awhile I realize that net.books has fallen
into disrepair.  When last I looked, there were fertile discussions of any- 
thing from graphics textbooks to recent and ancient literature.  Since we
don't get net.poems here at RDI, I'm imploring someone to turn me on to
some new authors.  Just to show I'm not selfish, here's a seed.
    My new passion is for the work of Grahame Green.  Although for years I
thought of him as just another spy novelist like Ludlum or LeCarre (not to
disparage their considerable talents), I have found that his perceptions of
human nature are quite profound.  His characters are very often apathetic
in environments where everyone else is involved in one faction or another.
Although politics usually figure in his books (Viet Nam under the French in
"The Quiet American", Haiti under Papa Doc in "The Comedians"), his 
principle characters act for personal reasons like desire, fear, the need
for security.  Heroism is seen as something very abnormal, even mythical
which lends credibility to his descriptions of particularly hopeless
political situation("The Quiet American" characterized American involvement
in Vietnam at least five years before our troops were sent in.). If
anyone can recommend another Grahame Green, or anything else, by all
means publish. Don't let the world think programmers are myopic.

					Fred Maslin
					philabs!rdin!fred