Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: notesfiles
Path: utzoo!lsuc!pesnta!pyramid!hplabs!hp-pcd!orstcs!nathan
From: nathan@orstcs.UUCP (nathan)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Is Larry Niven the SubGenius?
Message-ID: <7800055@orstcs.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 25-Jan-86 21:41:00 EST
Article-I.D.: orstcs.7800055
Posted: Sat Jan 25 21:41:00 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 28-Jan-86 04:41:00 EST
Organization: Oregon State University - Corvallis, OR
Lines: 22
Nf-ID: #N:orstcs:7800055:000:1012
Nf-From: orstcs!nathan    Jan 25 18:41:00 1986

I bought Niven and Pournelle's "Footfall" awhile back, and
enjoyed it a lot.  But that's not what this posting is about.

On the book's cover illustration, to the lower right of the Snout,
the image of BOB appears on a small scrap of paper.  This 
Bob character is the symbol and nonexistant founder of the
"Church of the SubGenius". Something about the Church appeared
here some years back.  Could this mean that Niven, Pournelle, or
the cover artist is somehow involved in the "cult"?

For those who missed the SubGenius material, the Church is a 
profit-making corporation, offering religion for those
willing to pay to be told what to think.  Church members revere
a disembodied head (smoking a pipe) named Bob, whose motto
(if I recall correctly) is "Slack off".  Anyway, this sounds
to me a lot like Niven's kind of goofiness.

If anyone has up-to-date or inside information on the Church of
the SubGenius, I'd be thrilled to see it.

Nathan C. Myers
{tektronix|hp-pcd}!orstcs!nathan | nathan@oregon-state